Promoting women’s groups for facilitating market linkages in Bihar, India

This report discusses findings from a 2018 survey of household members of agricultural producer groups (PGs) covered by the Women’s Advancement in Rural Development and Agriculture (WARDA) project. WARDA’s stated aim was to economically empower smallholder women farmers and increase their agricultural incomes by linking them to farmer producer companies (FPCs) and, thereby, to larger agricultural markets, while simultaneously building their and participating government institutions’ productive capacities. While WARDA’s scope extended to several crops and geographic locations, this study focuses on maize interventions undertaken in Purnea district in Bihar state.

We surveyed members of WARDA PGs (‘treatment’PGs) and other PGs constituted by the state government under its rural livelihoods programme, JEEViKA, but not covered by WARDA PGs (‘control’PGs). The survey was conducted three years after WARDA had been initiated in the region (2015). This survey, in conjunction with an endline survey, was intended to provide an impact evaluation of the project. However, the project ended in early 2019, so our analysis uses data only from the one survey that was conducted.