Agricultural Labour Households Research Articles

Are the Farmer Households Becoming Agricultural Labour Households in India? An Analysis of State-Wise SAS Data

Are the Farmer Households Becoming Agricultural Labour Households in India? An Analysis of State-Wise SAS Data

An Analysis of Income and Consumption Pattern among Agricultural Labourer Households in Rural Punjab

: Pattern of income and consumption is an important parameter to study the economic conditions of people living in any society. The present analysis is based upon primary data which collected from three different agro-climate regions of Punjab (South-west, Central plain and Shivalik foot-hill). Income from casual activities in agricultural accounts more than 40 per cent of the total income for an average agricultural labourer household followed by permanent agricultural labour and non-farm employment in rural Punjab. South-west region has recorded the highest share of permanent agricultural labour income, while Central plain and region has recorded the highest share of Shivalik foot-hill casual agricultural labour income. The per capita income is the highest in South-west region of Punjab. In all regions, an average household spends higher proportion of total consumption on non-durable items followed by marriages & other socio-religious ceremonies, services and durable items. There are slightly a few point differences between the expenditure on education and intoxicants among the sampled households.

Income and expenditure pattern of agricultural labour households in south-western region of Punjab

Income and expenditure pattern of agricultural labour households in south-western region of Punjab

Poverty Incidence and Income Inequality in the Tribal and Non-tribal Areas of Central Gujarat

The present investigation undertook to study the poverty incidence and income distribution among poor and non-poor in the tribal and nontribal areas applying headcount index and the Gini index and Lorenz curve. The headcount index showed the proportion of poor households. It showed that poverty was higher in the tribal area than in non-tribal regions. Incidence of poverty was higher in marginal farm households, followed by landless agricultural labour and small farm households. Income inequalities were depicted by the Gini coefficient and presented in graphical form by the Lorenz curve. It showed that total income was distributed more equally among poor and non-poor people in the tribal area than in non-tribal regions. It was also observed that in the tribal district, poor and non-poor households had the same proportion of inequality. It was suggested to focus on creating employment opportunities through programmes like MGNREGA to eliminate poverty in particular tribal areas.

Occupational Diversification as Livelihood Strategy Among the Agricultural Labour Households of West Bengal, India

It is now difficult for an agricultural-labour household to get employment as agricultural labourers throughout the year. So, this type of household for survival purposes has to depend on diversified occupations when sometimes only the household head participates and sometimes more than one able-bodied household member participate. Based on a village-level field investigation in West Bengal, the article explores that possibility to keep an agricultural labour household above the poverty line will be more effective if more than one adult member participates in different types of occupations throughout the year. Except this, other possible determinants which can play an effective role to keep an agricultural-labour household above the poverty line are higher operational land among the marginal farmer household who are also working as hired agricultural labour in others’ land and accessibility of microcredit for income-generating activity for the female member(s) of a household from self-help groups (SHGs).

Why market orientation matters for agriculture and fishery workers? Unravelling the association between households\u2019 occupational background and caloric deprivation in India

BackgroundDevelopmental policies in low- and middle-income countries pose immense potential within the agriculture sectors to escalate economic growth and development. Almost one-half of the workforces continue to be engaged in agriculture and allied activities with a relatively lower economic contribution than those employed in other sectors. Hence, realizing such potential however requires tremendous scaling up of skill development activities in the sector. Investing in skill development of workers engaged in agricultural and allied activities can potentially display notable value additions, income generation and therefore reductions in widespread deprivations in the form of food insecurity and undernutrition. Further with the direct link between nutrition and productivity, economic gains, it is further imperative to impart market exposure among subsistence and unskilled workers. This study therefore empirically investigates the association between households’ primary occupation and caloric deprivation in India. In particular, in a multivariate and multilevel framework, we identified how closely primary occupation of households explain the variation in caloric deprivation in India.MethodsDrawing upon data from 68th round (2011–12) of nationally representative cross-sectional Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) of National Sample Survey (NSS), Government of India, we examined the association between occupational backgrounds of households and caloric deprivation (average caloric consumption as well as low calorie intake) among Indian households.ResultsEvidences show that agricultural and fishery labor households have lowest calorie intake (2086 kcal) across all the occupational groups. However, market oriented skilled agricultural and fishery workers’ (2261 kcal – rural, 2165 kcal - urban) have higher calorie intakes than those belonging to subsistence agricultural (2165 kcal – rural, 2149 kcal - urban). Further, the multilevel logistic regression estimates suggest that in rural areas, households engaged in skilled agricultural and fishery works have significantly (at 5% level) lower odds ratio (OR: 0.72, with 95% CI: 0.63; 0.82) of having insufficient calorie intake compared to the unskilled agricultural and fishery laborer households. Estimates from variance partitioning based on multilevel logistic regression models suggest that the households’ occupational group accounts for 7 to 14% of total variation in calorie consumption.ConclusionThese insights when combined with the occupation-specific random-effects suggest that investing in skill development of agricultural and fishery workers may have immense potential to strengthen their nutritional status and to reduce deprivation levels.

Financial services technology adoption by agricultural labour households in Punjab

Financial services technology adoption by agricultural labour households in Punjab

Disparities in the Ownership of Assets, Income and Consumption Expenditure among Farm and Non-Farm Households in Hoshiarpur District of Rural Punjab

Disparities in the ownership of assets, income and consumption expenditure of households were increasing in the rural as well as urban areas of the country. The study was undertaken to examine the disparities in the ownership of assets, income and consumption expenditure among 200rural farm and non-farm sampled households in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. The reference period of the study was 2017-18. The results showed that the average value of total assets of rural farm households was 21.46 times than the average value of assets owned by non-farm households. The distribution of land was found more unequal among farm and non-farm households. A large majority of non-farm households were landless and few of them were uneconomic size of landholdings. Moreover, the average sampled farm households earned `2, 63,786 per annum from all the agricultural and non-agricultural sources, whereas non-farm households earned only 60 percent of the total income earned by farm households. The income level of artisans, agricultural and non-agricultural labour households was found very low mainly due to high rate of illiteracy, low level of education, lack of ownership of productive assets and absence of highly paid job opportunities. The average value of household assets, income and consumption expenditure of farm household was positively associated with the farm-sizes. The study concluded that there was high level of disparities not just between the farm and non-farm households but also inside the farm and non-farm households in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.

Income Inequalities among Rural Households of Punjab

ABSTRACT The study aimed to examine the inequality in income among various categories of households of rural Punjab. An attempt was made to compare and contrast the relative shares of the different components of income items in the total income of the households across the different rural household categories, along with examining the inequalities in the distribution of income prevailing therein. The analysis showed that an average rural household earns around one and a half lakh rupees annually in rural Punjab. There were considerable variations in the income levels earned among the different rural household categories. The farm business income is the most important component of household income for the farmer households, followed by livestock, pension and salary from private jobs. There were considerable differences in the range of average per capita and the average household incomes of the various rural categories. The per capita income earned by large farm households was 10.79 of times the per capita income earned by agricultural labour households.

Livelihood Security of Women Agricultural Labourers in Erode District of Tamilnadu

Aim: The main aims of the study is to identify the socio-economic characteristics of women agricultural labourer, to identify the determinants linked with economic, food, health, edification and empowerment as dissimilar domains of livelihood security of women agricultural labourers and to estimate the determinants of livelihood security of women agricultural labourers in Erode District of Tamil Nadu. Methods/Statistical analysis: The research has curbed in to a sample of 140 women agricultural workers households were selected from four villages of Bhavani taluk of Erode District in Tamil Nadu. A simple percentage analysis has been employed to identify the socio-economic characteristics and Multiple Regression equation method has fitted to the data to explore the effects of the explanatory variables on livelihood security of women agricultural labourers. Findings: Out of the 140 sample women agricultural labour households selected for the study, vast majority of the households registered as nuclear type of families; 52.86 percent with 2-4 members; 62.14 percent of the women agricultural workers were in the age cluster of 30 – 60 years; 33.57 percent of the respondents had education at secondary level; 33.57 percent labourers income falls in the income group of Rs.25000-Rs.50000/-,45.00 percent of the households selected for the study were with the asset group valued below Rs.2.5 lakhs. There was positive relationship of the explanatory variables with composite livelihood security index of agricultural women workers. Conclusions: Government intervention through legislation, planning and implementation must be stepped up to provide greater opportunity for the sustainable development of women livelihood security at all levels, so that the discriminatory practices of women and the gender related issues against women would be addressed.

Study of Micro-Evidences for Agricultural Labour Market Functioning in Agriculturally Developed Chomu Tehsil of Jaipur

The present study intended to investigate the performance of agricultural labour market in Jaipur district of Rajasthan. A cluster of three villages (Jaitpura, Kanpura and Khushalpura) from Chomu tehsil of Jaipur district was randomly selected for the study. The sixty respondents were selected on a random basis from the particular cluster of villages. The pre-tested schedules were used for collection of primary data from the selected agricultural labour households during 2010-11. The collected data were processed and analyzed by using various statistical and mathematical tools. The frequency of labour credit interlocking was much more prominent as compared to labour-land interlocking except in one village (Khushalpura), more than half of the labour had borrowed money from their employers. There was no definite rate of interest on the loaned money from the employers. However, the employers recovered very high unspoken rate of interest in terms of a number of little owing jobs. The labour-land interlocking was, however, yet another form of wage labour since all the inputs were being provided by the landowners. It was varied in between 14-18 percent. However, the average wage/day earned in this system was higher (Rs. 175-190) than the average wage rate in the casual labour system. Family size, family income, socioeconomic status of the family and age had a significant effect on the probability of an agricultural labour household entering into interlocked arrangements.

Livelihood security of agricultural labour households in rainfed region of north-Karnataka – An economic analysis

A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (social and material resources) and activities used by households for means of living. A livelihood index has been developed for agricultural labour households, based on the primary data. Six different sub-indices obtained are indicators of Economic, Food, Health, Education, Habitat and Social network Status for the rainfed regions of Bijapur district. Finally, a composite livelihood security index has been developed which indicates the livelihood status of migration and non-migration labour households in the study area. It is found that, migration households were moderately secured in terms of food security, economic security, education security and social network security. It was poor in case of health and habitat security. The composite livelihood security index (0.791) indicated that migration households were moderately secured in terms of livelihood. Non-migration labour households, the composite livelihood security index (0.645) indicated that households were less secured. In terms of food security and economic security, moderately secured and highly secured in education. In terms of health, habitat, social networks security non-migration labour households were less secured.

Utilization of Benefits of Developmental Programmes by Agricultural Labour Households in Karnataka-an Institutional Economic Analysis

Utilization of Benefits of Developmental Programmes by Agricultural Labour Households in Karnataka-an Institutional Economic Analysis

The Decline in the Labour Force Participation of Rural Women in India: Taking a Long-Run View

The significant fall in the labour force participation of rural women between 2004 and 2011 has been an issue that has generated considerable academic interest. In this paper, the authors look at thirty years of comparable NSS data from 1983 to 2011 of rural women’s participation in the labour force using a variety of definitions of female labour force participation that capture both market and non-market work. The authors find a long-term slow decline in the participation of rural women in wage work and self-employment, especially among dalit and adivasi women in poor agricultural labourer households. The more recent sharp decline in female labour force participation (FLP) in 2004–2011 has occurred both in market and non-market work, and across most categories of economically active women. Our analysis highlights the somewhat contradictory behaviour of rural FLP across different definitions and time periods, and across different correlates of female labour force participation, and suggests that more complex factors are at work than has usually been discussed in the literature.

Occupational diversification in the rural sector between 2003 and 2013: some observations

The rural occupational structure of the Indian economy has witnessed a change between 2003 and 2013. Understanding the occupational diversification is the central part of understanding the nature of transitionary process in Indian economy. Focusing on the two different methods of occupational classification, the present article is an attempt to explain the patterns of diversification of the rural Indian economy. The questions raised here are: Is the share of household in the farm sector reducing, if yes, who is diversifying from the farm sector, which occupational groups are increasing their share. The present study uses the National Sample Survey’ (NSS) unit level data on Household Debt and Investment and identifies three different important partial movements in the rural Indian economy. One is the significant decline in the share of ‘Other’ household in the non-farm sector. These households might be the households with surplus who moved out of rural sector to the urban sector. The second movement is the decline in the share of agricultural labour households and movement towards increasing share of cultivators/self-employed in agriculture on the one hand and the growth of ‘Other Labour’ on the other hand. The third movement, if the mixed household represents plural households, is an increase in the mixed households in the ‘Other Labour’ category within this group. It has a larger policy implication.

The incidence of labour-land and labour-credit interlocking in agriculturally developed region of Rajasthan

The present study investigates the functioning of Agricultural labour market in Jaipur district of Rajasthan. The Chomu tehsil was purposively selected for study. A cluster of three villages namely, Jaitpura, Kanpura and Khushalpura was randomly selected from the selected tehsil. From above selected villages, a sample of sixty respondents was selected at random with the help of probability proportion. Primary data were collected from the selected agricultural labour households by personally interviewing the results of study revealed that more than 80 per cent of the households reported either borrowing or leasing in land from their employers in all selected villages. Further, labour-credit interlocking was much more pronounced as compared to labour-land interlocking. The number of days worked on lower wages per annum varied from as high as 81.00 in Khushalpura to 61.00 in Jaitpura. The implicit rate of interest varied between as high as 36.00 per cent in Khushalpura and 24.00 per cent in Jaitpura. The incidence of hereditary debt was reported only in one sample villages, which was Rs. 12500 in Khushalpura. The incidence of labour land interlocking was very low; it varied from 14 per cent to around 18 per cent sample households involved in such interlocking. The low incidence of labour land interlocking was primarily due to the fact that most of the agricultural labour households did not have the supporting inputs, like bullocks and other farm implements which are essentially required in farming.

Inequalities among Rural Households-A Case for Shri Muktsar Sahib District

The present study attempts to analyse inequality in income, consumption and assets among rural households in Shri Muktsar district of Punjab. For the purpose of this study, one village from each development block of Shri Muktsar district has been selected on random basis. Thus, in all four villages are selected from the district for the survey. A representative proportional sample of 182 households comprising farmers, agricultural labourer and other households has been taken up for the survey. The study reveals that widespread inequalities prevail in the rural areas of Shri Muktsar district. Gini coefficient of all the households taken together is of the order of 0.3118, indicating a highly skewed distribution of income. The income concentration among the farm households is slightly greater than that of the agricultural labour households and all other households. Inequality in consumption expenditure is higher among other category households. This is because of some household are engaged in small business some other are engaged in non-agricultural labourer. The assets concentration among the farm as well as others household is higher than the agricultural labour households. Inequality in asset holding is higher than other indicators.

Livelihood Security of Agricultural Labour Households in Irrigated Regions of the Karnataka-An Economic Analysis#

This study measures livelihood security of selected agricultural labour households in irrigated region of Mandya district in Karnataka. Five security domains such as economic, food, education, health, habitat, and social network were chosen and indices were computed based on number of its associated indicators. To design the programme, different parameters like availability, accessibility in terms of distance, time and cost has been taken into consideration for the study. Economic security is the dominating component in the overall livelihoods followed by food. Irrespective of migration or non-migration, there are differences in opportunities but peoples are appearing equally insecure. Migrant labour households are faintly more secured in terms of economic, education, habitat and social network compared to non-migrant labour households. Most of the respondents opined that, the lack of basic facilities was one of the important reasons for non-attainment of livelihood security, followed by low wage rate and increased food prices in the study area.

Status of rural women in the farm and non-farm activities as well as in the household's decision making process in Gurdaspur district of Punjab

The present study entitled, “Status of rural women in the farm and nonfarm activities as well as in the household’s decision making process in Gurdaspur district of Punjab” was conducted with the specific objectives, namely to examine the involvement of rural women in farm and non-farm activities and to quantify the role of different factors in the decision making process in the family during 2014-15 in the KVK, Gurdaspur’s adopted villages in the district. A total of 100 rural households consisting of 70 farm households, spread over small, medium and large size categories and 30 agricultural labour households were selected at random. Survey method was applied for the collection of primary data. To achieve the objective of the study, various statistical tools like averages, percentages, etc. were used. It has been observed in the study that the female literacy rate was lower than their male counterparts in all the household categories in the study area. Women in the villages have been found to be performing in both the domestic as well as farm activities. In Punjab, farm women, usually, do not work in the fields but they do help in tending of cattle and handling of milk and milk products. However, women of agricultural labour families do work in the fields and also in the farmhouses in the village itself or in the houses of nearby towns/cities as maid servants. The study showed that rural women in the sample villages worked over 4600 to 5700 hours during the year on small farm, medium and large households and agricultural labour households over 5433 hours. Nearly one third of the farm women’s and 18.93 per cent of the agricultural labour household women’s time was used on farm related activities like crop production, cattle tending, mulching and processing, sale of milk, cooking and serving food to the labour, handling and storage of crop produce and other work including work in nearby houses and factories. And, the remaining two third of farm women’s and 81.28 per cent of farm labour women’s’ time was used on non-farm activities such as cooking and serving food to the family, cleaning of the house, utensils, sending children to the school, washing clothes, tailoring, knitting and dari making, going to fairs and other social occasions, visiting relatives, teaching children and some time for recreation activities like viewing T.V. etc. The rural women thus, worked for 12-16 hours a day and performed numerous jobs during the period. The study clearly brought about that, in the farm activities involving financial matters, women had very little say in the family, and they were found to have

Rural Employment and Labour Livelihood in Bihar: Village Level Analysis

The study analyses the changing employment and livelihood pattern of labor households during the last four years using panel data. The labor households are those who earned more than fifty per cent income through wage earning in farm and non-farm sectors. There is decline in proportion of labor households but clear evidence of transition of labor force has been observed from farm to non-farm sector during last four years. Some of the self-employed households in the agricultural sector moved towards the labor force, indicating a rise in the number of land owning labor households.Literacy level of laborers showed increasing trend but about one–third woman laborers are still illiterate in Bihar. There is no cast bar in joining the labor force. Asset poverty is very high and the incidence of livestock possession also declined continuously which was due to increase in fodder price, division of family, un-renumerative price of milk, introduction of tractor for ploughing. Labor households' access to toilet increased but about three-fourth of them still do not have toilet in the area under study. There was increase in employment for male in both farm and non-farm sector but increase was higher in non-farm sector than farm sector. Women employment in farm sector declined from 69 days in 2010 to 41 days in 2013 whereas there was an increase their employment in non-farm sector. The transition of labor force from farm to non-farm sector has been fast during last four years. The role of non–farm sector in providing rural employment has increased and strategy to increase non-farm employment may be one of potential pathways for alleviating poverty in Bihar. Some of the labor employed in farm sector and self-employed households in the agricultural sector moved towards the non-farm sector for employment. The trend in real wage rate showed that non-farm wage has grown faster than the farm wage. We observed that wage employment in general is superior to self-employment on very small size of farms in rural areas. Both farm and non–farm sectors witnessed increase in wages of labors during last four years but the increase was much higher in non-farm sector (65%) than farm sector (15%).Male laborers were employed on higher wages than women laborers in both farm and non-farm sectors in villages under study. Wages in farm sector in not only low but it does not provide regular employment whereas wages in non–farm is higher and employment is more regular. Wage determinant analysis revealed that a healthy, educated and land owning adult male laborer is likely to get higher wages whereas the caste of labor is not a significant factor for payment of wages in rural Bihar. Non-farm sector emerged as a major source for providing employment and generating income on labor households. Income through farming constituted about 8 to 12 per cent of total income on labor households but it fluctuates from year to year because farming is still dependent on extent of rainfall. Remittances emerged as the second most important source of income on labor households because migration for gainful employment is one of the important strategies for maintaining in Bihar, particularly on poor households. Analysis of income of poor and non-poor labor households indicates declining trend in income through wages through non–farm on poor labor households but it observed increasing trend on non-poor labor households, indicating positive effect of non-farm employment in increasing income and alleviating poverty on labor households. Income through employment in agriculture sector is declining but agricultural is still likely to be a key driver of growth even in the non-agricultural economy through linkages. Policies to extend systematic skill and training opportunities will help better opportunities of employment for migrants and non-farm workers which will help reducing poverty and improving livelihood of labor households in rural Bihar.Institutional credit flow is lower in Bihar and Agricultural labor households have much less access to institutional sources of credit. They depend on non–institutional credit sources for meeting their credit need. About one-third of labor households borrowed mainly meeting expenses of consumption credit including for meeting expenses of treatment of their family members.Various programs for welfare and development of the weaker section are implemented by different departments of government. But labor households have more access to social security schemes and project targeted to poor households (BPL families) than program launched for benefits of bot poor and non-poor households. However, programs like, MANREGAS, IAY, KCC and SHG have almost seized to operate in villages under study. Hence, there is need to revive these projects with more focus to the weaker section of society for the benefit of labor households.