Determinants of Non-farm Employment in Rural Bihar

Abstract

Bihar, one of India's fastest-growing states with double-digit growth, recently saw a decrease in employment share, resulting in attention being diverted to the rural non-farm sector to absorb the increased labour force and facilitate the economy's structural transformation. Hence, the current field survey was conducted to determine the factors influencing non-farm sector participation in rural Bihar u non-farm participation was mainly determined sing the Binary Logistic Model. The findings suggested that by social group, size of operational landholding, and source of income. Under social group, the shift of farm to non-farm sector in Bihar had mostly been for the upper castes. In terms of operational land holding, households owning some land showed less likely to enter non-farm work than landless households. Lastly, Households with non-farm income as the only source or a mix of both farm and non-farm were more likely to be engaged in the non-farm sector.