•Informal tenancy is widespread across the study area.•Two types of tenancy arrangements dominate: 1) fixed-rate rental, 2) sharecropping.•There is scant awareness about legislative provisions on agricultural tenancy.•Without documentation lessees failed to get any agricultural facility or subsidy.•Women have very limited access to leasing market both as lessee and lessor. Agricultural land leasing was legally prohibited in India after independence due to its exploitative nature towards the poor tenants. But as a result, large number of landless households started depending on informal land leasing. A qualitative study was carried out during January–March of 2018 in nine agro-climatic zones of Uttar Pradesh, a populous state in northern India, to analyze the current situation of agricultural land leasing. The study found that informal land leasing system is practiced extensively throughout the state. Land is generally rented either under fixed-price rental agreement or under sharecropping agreement. In areas where commercial agriculture is practiced, land is generally leased in by affluent lessees from small landowners under fixed-price rental agreement. On the other hand, in areas where agriculture is practiced for survival, land is leased-in by poor lessees from upper caste, affluent landowners under sharecropping arrangement. Very little awareness was found among both lessors and lessees concerning legislative provisions on agricultural tenancy. As no formal documentation regarding leasing agreement is made, lessees failed to access various benefits provided by the government to the farmers - including agricultural subsidy, agricultural credit and insurance, minimum support price for agricultural product. The study found that women were categorically excluded from the leasing market by their own families, society and government institutions. Women are not generally given land on lease by landowners, they do not get agricultural credit from the banks on their own, and they face security threat from their respective families if they themselves want to lease-out agricultural lands which are in their names. The study acknowledges the need for formalization of leasing agreement, making pro-women and pro-poor leasing policies, and sensitization of public officials in this regard.