Surplus Labour in Crop Production: Evidence from Select Villages in India

This paper attempts to measure the magnitude of surplus labour in crop production in different agroecological regions of India. The study also examines the gender composition of surplus labour in agriculture. The first finding is that actual labour use in crop production is a small proportion of total labour supply: the proportion varies from a minuscule 8 per cent to only 28 per cent. The second feature of the study is that it measures the employment gap month-wise. The gap between actual labour absorption and labour supply varies across villages, seasons and months. In some cases, there are specific times of the year when labour demand in crop production, in fact, exceeds the supply of labour. There has been no recent study that attempts to put numbers on the extent and gender composition of unemployment in different cropping systems and month by month. The data for the study come from nine villages surveyed by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. Our findings show, in general, that the current labour-carrying capacity of crop production leaves a large section of the working population, especially women, unemployed or underemployed. The more detailed findings provide insights into crop production and unemployment in specific agrarian contexts.