IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/inijae/345141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changing Agricultural Labour Market and Its Effects on Farm Economy in India

Author

Listed:
  • Srivastava, S.K.
  • Singh, Jaspal
  • Kumar, Nalini Ranjan
  • Singh, N.P.
  • Ahmad, Nasim

Abstract

The paper presents long-run changes in agricultural labour market and its effects on farm economy. Further, the effect of COVID-19 led disequilibrium in labour market on cost of cultivation of paddy and wheat has been quantified. The evidence from both census and NSSO surveys point out rising employment diversification towards non-farm sectors. Census estimates of agricultural labour are higher than NSSO estimates which is partly explained by adoption of different ‘minor’ time criteria by these sources to identify marginal/subsidiary labour. Census based evidences suggest distress-led transition of cultivators to agricultural labours, whereas NSSO surveys based evidences refute such trends and point out towards development-led employment diversification wherein both cultivators and agricultural labours move towards more productive non-farm sectors. The recent NSSO survey (2017-18) reveals deceleration in withdrawal of cultivators and acceleration in withdrawal of agricultural labours. Successive cost of cultivation surveys also report a consistent decline in labour use in crop cultivation and therefore externally validate the trends from NSSO surveys. However, despite reduction in labour use, labour cost has increased. Due to inelastic demand for labour, increase in wages could not bring proportionate decrease in labour use and resulted in increase in labour cost in crop cultivation. Short-term disequilibrium in labour supply caused due to COVID-19 led lockdown increased cost A1+FL by 1.1 per cent in wheat and 4.6 per cent in paddy. However, farmers in Bihar did not witness any benefit on account of increased labour supply due to large scale reverse migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Srivastava, S.K. & Singh, Jaspal & Kumar, Nalini Ranjan & Singh, N.P. & Ahmad, Nasim, 2020. "Changing Agricultural Labour Market and Its Effects on Farm Economy in India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:inijae:345141
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.345141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/345141/files/Changing%20Agricultural%20Labour.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.345141?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Himanshu, Himanshu & Lanjouw, Peter & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop & Murgai, Rinku, 2011. "Non-farm diversification and rural poverty decline: a perspective from Indian sample survey and village study data," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 38371, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Srivastava, S.K. & Chand, Ramesh & Singh, Jaspal, 2017. "Changing Crop Production Cost in India: Input Prices, Substitution and Technological Effects," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 30(Conferenc).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lindsay M. Jaacks & Divya Veluguri & Rajesh Serupally & Aditi Roy & Poornima Prabhakaran & GV Ramanjaneyulu, 2021. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural production, livelihoods, and food security in India: baseline results of a phone survey," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(5), pages 1323-1339, October.
    2. Dethier, Jean-Jacques & Effenberger, Alexandra, 2012. "Agriculture and development: A brief review of the literature," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 175-205.
    3. Vis Taraz, 2023. "Public works programmes and agricultural risk: Evidence from India," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(2), pages 198-223, April.
    4. Reddy, A Amarender, 2013. "Rural transformation since 1970s in Dokur Village of Andhra Pradesh, India," MPRA Paper 30784, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Nov 2013.
    5. Clive Bell, 2022. "The social profitability of rural roads in a small open economy: Do urban agglomeration economies matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(2), pages 373-397, April.
    6. Peter Lanjouw & Rinku Murgai & Nicholas Stern, 2013. "Nonfarm diversification, poverty, economic mobility, and income inequality: a case study in village India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(4-5), pages 461-473, July.
    7. Pagare, Dewang & Biswas, Indranil & Agrahari, Amit & Ghosh, Sriparna, 2023. "A small farmer’s market choice in the presence of multiple markets: The Indian case," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(2), pages 739-753.
    8. Dsouza, Alwin & Mishra, Ashok K. & Tripathi, Amarnath, 2018. "Improving Diet Quality through Off-Farm Work: Empirical Evidence from India," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274494, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Bhushan, S., 2016. "TFP Growth of Wheat and Paddy in Post-Green Revolution Era in India: Parametric and Non-Parametric Analysis," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 29(1).
    10. Anviksha Drall & Sabuj Kumar Mandal, 2020. "Determinants of various modes of rural non-farm sector (RNFS) employment in SAT (semi-arid tropics) and Eastern regions of India: an empirical analysis," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 253-282, December.
    11. Vatta, K & Singh, G & Sharma, N & Bhoi, PB, 2018. "Regional dimensions and determinants of income diversification in rural India," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 31(2).
    12. Sudha Narayanan & Sharada Srinivasan, 2020. "No country for young women farmers: A situation analysis for India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2020-041, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    13. Fayaz A. Lone & Showkat A. Ganaie & M. Imran Ganaie & Javeed A. Rather & Jahangeer A. Parry, 2022. "Is paddy cultivation in Kashmir Valley still a profitable activity? Geo-economic analysis across physiographic divisions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(8), pages 1-18, August.
    14. Kiros Tsegay & Hongzhong Fan & Hailay Shifare & Priyangani Adikari, 2021. "The role of small town in household livelihood diversification in Ethiopia rural areas," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(7), pages 230-241, October.
    15. Satyasai, KJS & Balanarayana, M, 2018. "Can mechanization in agriculture help achieving sustainable development goals?," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 31(2).
    16. Sinduja Srinivasan, 2014. "Impact of Public Works on Household Occupational Choice Evidence from NREGS in India," Working Papers WR-1053, RAND Corporation.
    17. Independent Evaluation Group, 2016. "Growing the Rural Nonfarm Economy to Alleviate Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28971.
    18. Purushotham, Anjali & Steinhübel, Linda, 2021. "You Eat What You Work – Livelihood Strategies and Nutrition in the Rural-Urban Interface," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315247, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Alwin D'Souza & Ashok K. Mishra & Stefan Hirsch, 2020. "Enhancing food security through diet quality: The role of nonfarm work in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 95-110, January.
    20. van Duijne, Robbin Jan, 2019. "Why India’s urbanization is hidden: Observations from “rural” Bihar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:inijae:345141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.