India’s Farming Revolution Is Led by Women 🇮🇳 [NITYA RAO]

What if the future of regenerative agriculture won’t be decided in Europe… but in India, Africa, and the Global South?

In this powerful Deep Seed mini-episode, we sit down with Professor Nitya Rao, leading gender and climate researcher and contributor to the Lancet Commission on Food Systems, to explore a perspective we rarely hear in the regenerative agriculture movement.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:

👉 Many smallholder farmers in India are already farming regeneratively — not because it’s trendy, but because they have no choice.

👉 Women are carrying entire food systems on their backs — yet remain invisible in climate policy.

👉 And if governments don’t act wisely, the Global South may repeat the same industrial agriculture mistakes that pushed us beyond planetary boundaries.

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🔎 In this episode, we explore:

Why 90% of Indian farmers cultivate less than 5 hectares — and what that means for regenerative agriculture

How monocultures, fertilizer subsidies, and “yield at all costs” policies affect soil health and biodiversity

The hidden reality of male migration and how women are sustaining farming and food systems

Why gender-blind climate policies fail — and what intersectionality really means in agriculture