Multi-sectoral approaches for tackling micronutrient malnutrition are increasingly being propagated with a focus on incorporation of agriculture in general and gender dynamics in particular.Specifically for India there is no study that explores micronutrient malnutrition as a function of the farming system.Most studies on India assume anemia to be caused by iron deficiency.At a global level focusing on iron intake per se offers one way to move towards achieving all the millennium development goals(MDGs),especially gender equality and womens empowerment.This research work studies the effect of different farming systems on the iron deficiency status of women(reproductive age group: 15-45 years).The field site is the Chandrapur district in eastern Vidarbha(Maharashtra).Prevalence of iron deficiency is assessed using information on five blood assays-levels of serum ferritin,serum transferrin receptors,hemoglobin,C-reactive protein(CRP)and Alpha-1 glycoprotein(AGP).Dietary intake is determined by using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire and a 24-hour diet diversity score.Primary data was collected using a face-to-face household survey.The data was collected on three broad modules:household agriculture & economics,womens dietary intake and maternal health,and empowerment.Using a two-stage sampling strategy,first 24 villages were selected from 3farming clusters based on probability proportionate to population size(8 villages per cluster).In the second stage 40 households per village were selected based on simple random sampling.In all 960 households in the district were surveyed.In this paper we discuss preliminary results from the household survey.Specifically we analyze iron intake across three farming systems based on a 24-hour diet diversity score.At the same time we study the relationship between this iron intake and womens iron deficiency status.The latter is defined using body iron expressed in mg/kg.We find that dietary diversity scores for women differ significantly between the three farming systems.At the same time there do not appear to be any significant differences in mean body iron levels between different farming systems.These initial results need to be strengthened by incorporating additional information and more rigorous methods of data analysis like multivariate regressions using instrumental variables.