DS Group launches campaign to highlight the role of women in agriculture

Team L&M

With an aim to highlight the contribution of female farmers in agriculture, DS Group, a multi-business corporation and one of the leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) conglomerates has launched a new initiative titled #SaluteTheFarmHER,

India is an agrarian economy where about 54.6 per cent of the total workforce is engaged in agricultural and allied sector activities. Though farming is perceived to be a male activity, as per a Niti Ayog report agriculture employs about 80 per cent of rural women. Yet, there is a lack of their recognition. This necessitates the need to sensitise the audience, create awareness, empower, and at the same time applaud the rural women workforce for their efforts.

Conceptualised by Grapes, the execution began by releasing a video to bring this gap to the general audience’s attention. It showed that when kids were asked to draw a farmer, most of them conjured up the image of a male.

Talking about the initiative, a spokesperson from DS Group said, “Our CSR initiatives are designed on the principles that indigenous knowledge and skills of the local community are important towards sustainable development. We look at a holistic approach to add value, from creating awareness to implementation and ensuring sustainability. In the ‘New India’, rural women are leading the change in the social, economic, and environmental spheres. Empowering them can make way for a substantial leap towards the growth of the economy.”

Talking about the campaign, Grapes Co-Founder & CEO Shradha Agarwal says, “Today, when all of us regularly turn to digital for all of our needs, wants, queries and much more, how something is represented in the online space becomes all the more critical. The representation of female farmers, however, is severely lacking. And due recognition is quite necessary in order to garner opportunities for equitable growth. So, the #SaluteTheFarmHER is a small step in that direction with the hope of initiating larger change.”