Women farmers are helping transition to natural farming in Andhra Pradesh

The state's natural farming programme must ensure that women are empowered as they move to cleaner, greener farming, and do not just become a means to an end

In front of her modest one-room house under the shadow of a neem tree, P. Mary cuddles her six-month-old twin grandchildren. As the heat abates and the breeze picks up, Mary, who is in her 40s, along with husband Manohar and youngest daughter Sreelekha, walk over to the adjacent acre of land, past rows of banana saplings they had planted a few weeks earlier.

Alongside serried lines of black drip-irrigation pipes, they begin sowing tomato and chilli seeds in long rows after coating them with beejamrutham, literally nectar for the seeds--a concoction of soil, cow dung, cow urine and lime.