PRADEEP RANA | NEW DELHI Urging women to take up agriculture and the related occupations, the Government has said that women play a decisive role in "ensuring food security and preserving local agro-biodiversity." Inaugurating an interactive session on "Women in AgriStartups: Creating Value with Supply Chain Management", the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kailash Choudhary said the Government is committed to give priority to women for bringing them into the mainstream of agriculture development. The minister said the role of women is not only confined to agriculture after India's independence but their contribution is visible in all sectors including defence, space, administration, sports etc. "It gives immense satisfaction and pride tos ee that women are fulfilling their dreams and reaching the thresholds in self-reliant India," the minister said, adding that the formation of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) will benefit women farmers in a revolutionary way. The session on Women in Agri-Startups focused on Enabling Women Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness; Strategy and Schemes to support Agri-Startups in India; Technology transfer to Startups for Commercialization; Value Chain Management and Challenges faced by Agri-Startups, Agripreneures. Agriculture sector employs 80 percent of all economically active women; they comprise 33 percent of the agricultural labour force and 48 percent of self-employed farmers. The senior and middle-level extension functionaries, women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs and resource persons from various training institutes participated in the event. The successful women entrepreneurs from various States also narrated their views and experiences on the occasion. The minister also released an e-book depicting "Success Stories of 75 progressive women farmers and women entrepreneurs to commemorate 75 years of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' on the occasion. With women predominant at all levels of production- pre-harvest, post-harvest processing, packaging, marketing- of the agricultural value chain, to increase productivity in agriculture, it is imperative to adopt gender-specific interventions. The Government has tried to push the agenda of 'Gender Mainstreaming in Agriculture' by way of earmarking funds for women under various schemes/programmes and development interventions; introducing 'pro-women initiatives' to help women derive the benefits of all beneficiary-oriented components of different programmes. T The focus of the mainstreaming agenda is on the formation of women Self Help Groups (SHGs), Women Federations and Women Farmer Producer Organisations; capacity building interventions; linking them to microcredit; enhancing their access to information and ensuring their representation in decision making bodies at various levels.