CHENNAI, India -- Poonam Devi, a mahila sakhi (female farmer) from Muzaffarpur, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, is feeling relaxed. Her maize cobs have been plucked, dried and marketed, along with the potatoes she grew alongside the crop, and her mung beans will soon be ready for harvesting.
For Poonam, farming has been a successful career. But she is far from typical among India's millions of female farmers, whose struggles to overcome cultural and gender biases are highlighted in a recently published study, "Women Farmers: Unheard Being Heard," published by Springer, in Singapore.
