STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND AGRARIAN CRISES IN KARNATAKA: ANALYSIS OF EMERGING EVIDENCE

Abstract

Agriculture is the primary occupation of most of Karnataka's rural residents. A total of 123,100 km² of land is cultivated in Karnataka, constituting 25.3% of the total geographical area of the state. Agriculture in Karnataka is heavily dependent on the southwest Monsoon since the extent of arid land in the state is second only to Rajasthan. Only 26.5% of sown area (30,900 km²) is subjected to irrigation. The state has three agricultural seasons – Kharif (April to September), Rabi (October to December) and summer (January to March). This study exploits the rapid technological improvement and development during the Green revolution to estimate the effects of agricultural productivity growth on structural change both in Karnataka and across country. The process of development requires structural change. The structural change of an economy takes place mainly along two dimensions: one is the changing sector-wise shares in GDP and the second is the changing share of the labour force, engaged in each sector. In case of Karnataka State economy, it is seen that as a first step, the agriculture sector loses its importance with a simultaneous growth of the manufacturing sector and tertiary sector. In Karnataka State, the service sector has grown by by-passing the secondary sector. Structural changes in agricultural sector it is also one type of the agrarian crises in Karnataka state. Agriculture is mainly depends upon monsoon so rural people more interested to go urban area due to getting jobs and were wages are high compared to village. Agricultural sector facing problem of agricultural labour due to agricultural labourers are shifted to urban area because of wages in agriculture sector is low compared to urban wages. In this context, this chapter is an attempt to mark out the structural change in terms of input structure, production structure and employment structure. KEY WORDS: primary sector, Secondary sector, Tertiary sector, Agriculture, Agricultural crops cropping pattern, Cropping pattern.