IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ragrar/334359.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Dhar, Niladri Sekhar

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Dhar, Niladri Sekhar, 2021. "Surplus Labour in Crop Production: Evidence from Select Villages in India," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 11(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ragrar:334359
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/334359/files/Surplus_Labour_in_Crop_Production_Evidence_from_Select_Villages_in_India.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lovell Jarvis & Esperanza Vera-Toscano, 2004. "Seasonal Adjustment in a Market for Female Agricultural Workers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 86(1), pages 254-266.
    2. Bezu, Sosina & Barrett, Christopher B. & Holden, Stein T., 2012. "Does the Nonfarm Economy Offer Pathways for Upward Mobility? Evidence from a Panel Data Study in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1634-1646.
    3. Dhar, Niladri Sekhar & Kaur, Navpreet, 2013. "Features of Rural Underemployment in India: Evidence from Nine Villages," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 3(1), July.
    4. Ashok Mathur, 1964. "The Anatomy Of Disguised Unemployment," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 161-193.
    5. Lloyd G. Reynolds, 1969. "Relative Earnings and Manpower Allocation in Developing Economies," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 14-34.
    6. Lanjouw, Jean O. & Lanjouw, Peter, 2001. "The rural non-farm sector: issues and evidence from developing countries," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 1-23, October.
    7. Robinson, Warren C, 1969. "Types of Disguised Rural Unemployment and Some Policy Implications," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 373-386, November.
    8. Estudillo, Jonna P & Otsuka, Keijiro, 1999. "Green Revolution, Human Capital, and Off-Farm Employment: Changing," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 497-523, April.
    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. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Swinnen, Johan & Maertens, Miet, 2017. "Global value chains, large-scale farming, and poverty: Long-term effects in Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 97-107.
    2. Feuerbacher, Arndt & McDonald, Scott & Dukpa, Chencho & Grethe, Harald, 2020. "Seasonal rural labor markets and their relevance to policy analyses in developing countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Adamseged, M.E. & Frija, A. & Thiel, A., 2018. "Dynamics of rural livelihoods and rainfall variability in Northern Ethiopia," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277441, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kumilachew Alamerie Melesse, 2018. "Impact of off-farm activities on technical efficiency: evidence from maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Bezu, Sosina & Holden, Stein, 2014. "Are Rural Youth in Ethiopia Abandoning Agriculture?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 259-272.
    6. Rijkers, Bob & Söderbom, Måns, 2013. "The Effects of Risk and Shocks on Non-Farm Enterprise Development in Rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 119-136.
    7. Davis,Benjamin K. & Di Giuseppe,Stefania & Zezza,Alberto & Davis,Benjamin K. & Di Giuseppe,Stefania & Zezza,Alberto, 2014. "Income diversification patterns in rural Sub-Saharan Africa : reassessing the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7108, The World Bank.
    8. Keijiro Otsuka & Jonna P. Estudillo & Takashi Yamano, 2010. "The Role of Labor Markets and Human Capital in Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Asia and Africa," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), vol. 7(1), pages 23-40, June.
    9. Kowalski,Julia & Lipcan, Alina & McIntosh, Katie & Smida, Remy & Sørensen, Signe Jung & Seff, Ilana & Jolliffe, Dean, 2017. "Non-farm Enterprises in Rural Ethiopia: improving Livelihoods by Generating Income and Smoothing Consumption?," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 25(2), May.
    10. Komikouma Apelike Wobuibe Neglo & Tnsue Gebrekidan & Kaiyu Lyu, 2021. "The Role of Agriculture and Non-Farm Economy in Addressing Food Insecurity in Ethiopia: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, April.
    11. Mintewab Bezabih & Andrea Mannberg & Eyerusalem Siba, 2014. "The land certification program and off-farm employment in Ethiopia," GRI Working Papers 168, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    12. Saumya Chakrabarti, 2014. "The formal–informal dichotomy: Revisiting the debate on the agriculture–industry linkage," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 25(1), pages 154-178, March.
    13. Nandika S. Kumanayake & Jonna P. Estudillo & Keijiro Otsuka, 2014. "Changing Sources of Household Income, Poverty, and Sectoral Inequality in Sri Lanka, 1990–2006," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(1), pages 26-51, March.
    14. Brosig, Stephan & Glauben, Thomas & Herzfeld, Thomas & Rozelle, Scott & Wang, Xiaobing, 2007. "The dynamics of Chinese rural households' participation in labor markets," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 37(2-3), pages 167-178.
    15. Kishor Atreya & Narayan Sharma Rimal & Prabina Makai & Manish Baidya & Jiban Karki & Gerda Pohl & Sunita Bhattarai, 2023. "Dalit’s livelihoods in Nepal: income sources and determinants," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(11), pages 12629-12657, November.
    16. Ramírez, Eduardo & Ruben, Ruerd, 2015. "Gender Systems and Women’s Labor Force Participation in the Salmon Industry in Chiloé, Chile," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 96-104.
    17. Neil McCulloch & C. Peter Timmer & Julian Weisbrod, 2007. "Pathways Out of Poverty During an Economic Crisis: An Empirical Assessment of Rural Indonesia," Working Papers 115, Center for Global Development.
    18. Teh, Benny Cheng Guan & Ngu, Ik Tien, 2016. "Perceptions and Practice of Human Security in Malaysia," Working Papers 134, JICA Research Institute.
    19. Emerick, Kyle, 2018. "Agricultural productivity and the sectoral reallocation of labor in rural India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 488-503.
    20. Jarvis, Lovell S. & Vera-Toscano, Esperanza, 2004. "The Impact Of Chilean Fruit Sector Development On Female Employment And Household Income," Working Papers 11964, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

    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:ragrar:334359. 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/faskoin.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.