First India Young Farmers Camp and Agrilympics (YFCA)

First India Young Farmers Camp and Agrilympics (YFCA)
Organized by: Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)
21-23 July, 2025
NASC Complex, PUSA Campus, New Delhi, India

Over 55% of SEWA’s membership consist of smallholder farmers, sharecroppers and agricultural labourers. The irony of the fact is that despite playing a major role in feeding the entire nation, these very poor women agriculturalist struggle day-in and day-out to make ends meet. 

Also, over the past decade, SEWA has seen a major demographic shift in its membership, with over 33% of its members being young between the ages of 18 and 30. The aspirations of these young women workers are very different from their parents. 

Therefore, to provide these young agriculturalist members of SEWA, a space to share their dreams, challenges and aspirations for innovations in futuristic climate-resilient agriculture, SEWA hosted the “SEWA’s National Youth Agri-Olympics 2025”—gathering of over 120 young women farmers from 23 farmer’s organisations across 15 states in India.

From Gujarat to Meghalaya, Kashmir to West Bengal, young agriculturalists voiced both hardships and hopes. Recognizing the event as an opportunity for the younger generation to reflect, reconnect, and rediscover their bond with the land, Meenaben Khokhar, a young farmer from Kutch, Gujarat poetically urged her peers to “modernize farming without abandoning its values”. 

Iadalin Warbha, a grassroots leader from Meghalaya reminded all that innovation must go hand in hand with tradition, while Iqra Habib, a smallholder farmer from Kashmir spoke of doubling incomes through kitchen gardens and cold storage. Bihar’s farmer leader, Sudhaben shared how onion cultivation gave her income and voice at home, and with her peers declared: “We don’t want to migrate anymore. Give us land, water, training and we’ll build our own futures here.”

The Agri-Olympics blended knowledge sessions, sports, cultural exchange, renewable energy demonstrations, and business pitching in an “Agri Shark Tank.” It brought together eminent leaders, academicians, economists, policy makers, scientists and experts from the field including Dr. Rajbir Singh of ICAR, Dr. K J Mehta and Dr D K Singh from IARI. 

The Agri-Olympics ended not as a conclusion, but as a new beginning—where India’s young women farmers rise as leaders, innovators, and changemakers in agriculture.

Read a detailed report of the event here: https://tinyurl.com/bdct7ct9