Purpose: Though women are engaged in farming and play a major role in almost every agricultural operation, they continue to receive very limited extension support. While several interventions have been made to address this "gender" bias in extension delivery, there continues to be a shortfall between the kind of support that is provided and the needs and demands of rural women. This gap between supply and demand needs to be addressed in order to improve the lives and livelihoods of women in the rural farming sector. Design/methodology/approach: This article presents the salient features of a new consultative process for designing gender-sensitive and demand-led programmes for rural women. The process was piloted at three diverse locations in India. Findings: This new approach is important for three reasons. First, it addresses women's real needs through an analysis of household-level information about their livelihoods, aspirations and opportunities for sustainable income generation. Second, this approach builds on a database that allows collection, storage, retrieval and analysis of baseline information; considers feasibility studies; identifies and develops potential suitable interventions; and reflects on the possible contribution of the potential interventions to meeting the needs and aspirations of women. Third, this approach offers scope for ensuring convergence of interventions by different agencies, as everyone can use the same database to plan, select and monitor their interventions. Practical implications and originality/value: This approach if adapted and used in different contexts could help organizations design enhanced interventions to bridge the supply and demand gap of the support provided and the requirements of rural women, thereby achieving improved results.