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Labour Supply of Cultivator and Labour Households: Insights From a Longitudinal Survey in Vidarbha, Maharashtra

Author

Listed:
  • Sarthak Gaurav

    (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay))

  • Rahul Kumar Singh

    (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay))

  • Thiagu Ranganathan

    (Centre for Development Studies (CDS))

Abstract

This paper presents evidence on the labour supply of agricultural households in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, a predominantly rainfed region where agricultural households are dependent on cotton and soybean cultivation. Using panel data of cultivator and labour households over the period from 2019 to 2021 that included the COVID-19 pandemic, our paper adds to the limited empirical evidence on dynamics of labour supply in rural labour markets in general and rainfed regions in particular. Our study finds considerable gendered division in the labour supply as well as in the labour market adjustments of households to cope with income shocks. With the burden of the pandemic and unseasonal rainfall in 2020, cultivator households primarily shifted labour supply from agricultural wage employment to non-farm employment while labour households increased their non-farm labour supply without significantly altering their agricultural wage employment. Among the cultivator households, labour supply response varied considerably by landholding size. The paper also underlines the lack of availability of remunerative and stable non-farm wage employment for agricultural households in the study region.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarthak Gaurav & Rahul Kumar Singh & Thiagu Ranganathan, 2024. "Labour Supply of Cultivator and Labour Households: Insights From a Longitudinal Survey in Vidarbha, Maharashtra," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(4), pages 1117-1140, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:67:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-024-00533-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-024-00533-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour supply; Agricultural wage employment; Non-farm diversification; Vidarbha; COVID-19; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • J43 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Agricultural Labor Markets

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