International Women’s Day 2026: Women Defending Seeds and Food – Two New Films

Stories of women farmers resisting corporate agriculture and reclaiming food, seed and community.

On this International Women’s Day, we honour the women who defend life at its roots. We stand with the women who keep seeds alive — and with them, the future of food.

Across India, from the rice cultures of Odisha to the Himalayan highlands and Adivasi forest communities, women are protecting seeds, regenerating soil, and reclaiming food sovereignty from industrial agriculture.

Today, we share two films that document women defending seeds, sovereignty, and life itself.

Annapurna – Rituals and Resistance of Rice Cultures in India (Trailer)

We are releasing the trailer of Annapurna, a new film that weaves together the voices of women seed keepers, the songs of elders, and the living traditions of Adivasi communities.

Narrated through: The voices of women of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal, songs sung by elders of the High Northern Himalayas, and through timeless customs of the Adivasi Community in Chattisgarh. Annapurna, the Goddess of food and abundance is invoked in these stories, bringing to life the sacred in the interconnectedness between seed, food, community and the Earth.

These farming communities of India mitigate climate change, and reclaim their seed and food sovereignty by keeping these ceremonies alive.

This 35 minute short film is a snippet of the grassroots work, the Navdanya farmers’ movement founded by Dr.Vandana Shiva has been doing for over forty years. 

Join us in celebrating these communities that have relentlessly fought against structures of colonization and capitalism to keep their way of knowing, living and being alive.

Shakti (Full Film)

We are also sharing Shakti, which amplifies the voices of organic women farmers from the Mahila Anna Swaraj (MAS) movement across India, initiated by Navdanya. 

The film documents the courage of women who walked away from genetically modified crops and the cycle of debt, dispossession, and tragedy imposed by corporate agriculture. Through their “gardens of hope,” they are restoring biodiversity, rebuilding community health, and strengthening local food sovereignty.

In the midst of pandemic, climate crisis, and economic instability, these women demonstrate that agroecology is not only viable — it is a pathway to autonomy, dignity, and resilience.

Invitation to Collaborate

We are organising screenings, submitting Annapurna to festivals, and expanding subtitles to reach wider audiences.

If your organisation would like to host a screening, collaborate on distribution, or support subtitling in additional languages, we would welcome a conversation.

CONTACT US

Further resources on ecofeminism and women’s food sovereignty

Diverse Women for Diversity 

Diverse Women for Diversity is a global alliance of women grounded in their territories and cultures, who have come together to defend biodiversity, seeds and food as commons against the corporate takeover of life. From farms and forests to marketplaces and institutions, they challenge monocultures, patents on life and industrial agriculture, and instead affirm local knowledge, community economies and food sovereignty as the basis of real security and peace.

Making Peace with the Earth – Through Diversity, Mutuality, Non-Violence & Care – An Ecofeminist Manifesto

“Making Peace with the Earth” is the ecofeminist manifesto of Diverse Women for Diversity, exposing how the patriarchal, industrial model of the economy fuels war against women, nature and communities. It offers a political and philosophical framework for reclaiming the economy as care for the Earth and one another, putting biodiversity, seed freedom, food sovereignty and non‑violence at the centre of our collective future.