Employment In Non-farm Sector Research Articles

An Analysis of Labour Use Pattern in Thirappane Village Tank Cascade System in Sri Lanka: Determinants and Potential Effects of Off-farm Employment

Participation in off-farm employment is a strategy adopted by farmers in many developing countries to increase and stabilize their incomes. However, empirical evidence on its effects on management of natural resources is context specific. This study examines the pattern on labor use with special emphasis on determinants and potential effects of participation in off-farm employment by the villagers reside in Thirappane tank cascade system in Sri Lanka. Data gathered from a primary survey conducted among 134 households were used for analysis. The results of probit models revealed that the farmers who possess agricultural assets have a higher probability of joining employment in other-farms and those who are educated and own large farms participate in non-farm sector employment. Community management of the village tank cascade systems will be challenging owing to the increased interest in off-farm activities by the able.

An Investigation of Employment Choice in the Rural Sector of Pakistan

Agricultural sector remained the focus of policy makers in an attempt to improve the rural incomes and reducing rural poverty among highly populated but less developed countries. The paper analyzes the workers’ choice between farm and nonfarm sectors in the rural sector. The study provides a theoretical framework where the employment decision of rural household member in the farm and nonfarm sectors depends on its physical assets including landholding and human capital development. The empirical analysis uses data for Pakistan obtained from PIHS 2001-02 and PSLM 2010-11. The results of the empirical model show that landholding is the major factor that drives the individual towards the farm activity while, education and public policy incentives including connectivity, market access and information spur the nonfarm employment. The findings of the study favor the development of nonfarm sector in order to cope with excessively increasing number of rural semi-skilled young workers. The findings suggest that focus of the policy should be on education and training to provide an enabling environment for sustained earnings of individuals. Nonfarm sector employment may ensure sustainable income of the rural labor as well as production of exportable surplus from rural to urban areas. This is inevitable due to poor economic conditions of rural workers and limited absorption capacity of farm and the urban job markets in the country.

Penetration of farm mechanization services through FPOs: rural dynamics-based business modelling

Farm mechanisation although one among the essential input to raise the agriculture productivity, but individual owning of agricultural machinery by resource constrained small and marginal farmers who constitute around 85% of operated land holdings in India is uneconomical. Hence, innovative arrangements such as custom hiring centres’ (CHCs) are being encouraged through farm aggregation models like cooperative farming, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to get access to farm machinery services at affordable prices and promote mechanization of operations on small farms. With this background, the present study is taken upto assess the feasibility for the establishment of FPO owned and operated model custom hiring centre (CHC) in Nimmanapalle mandal of chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh state and formulate suitable business strategies for ensuring viability of the unit. The sample size of the study was 120 farmers. The major crops grown in the study area are tomato, paddy and groundnut and the market potential for farm machinery is estimated at Rs. 269.73 lakhs. The SWOT analysis conducted indicated the opportunity for establishment of CHC due to inadequate farm machinery services, labour shortages and farmers habituated to hiring services. The financial assessment for the proposed unit over a five year period showed that the unit is worth investing as reflected by positive NPV of 6.56 lakhs at 12% discount rate, BCR of 1.05 and IRR of 17.27%. The debt service coverage ratios of greater than two from second year onwards and annual increase of positive cash accruals signifies the unit strength in meeting the debt obligations. The unit if established shall have long term social benefits that includes increase in input use efficiency of farm resources due to timeliness of operations, productivity, yields, income levels in addition to creation of employment in non-farm sector.

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.

Rural non-farm employment in Maharashtra: trends and determinants (1993–94 to 2009–10)

In the post-liberalisation frame, employment generation in rural non-farm sector has shown a considerable growth at an all-India level but in Maharashtra the growth of employment in this sector has been a bit stagnant. The present study has been undertaken with the objective of examining the structure, growth and developmental potentials of non-farm activities for employment generation in rural Maharashtra and the determinants of entry into this sector’s employment in the post-liberalisation period. This will be done as Maharashtra is one of the most urbanised states in India and also a state with the maximum number of farmer suicides. Based on the unit-level National Sample Survey data on employment and unemployment for four quinquinnial rounds 50 th , 55 th , 61 st and 66 th , it has been observed that a majority of the rural non-farm workers in the state belonged to Pune, Thane, Ahmadnagar and Sholapur districts in the post-liberalisation frame. Gender disparity with regards to employment in rural non-farm sector has been observed as the employment share is dominated by males while females constitute a very low share of employment in the same. Employment in trade, hotels and restaurants has seen a considerable increase mainly for male workers, followed by the construction sector. Caste status, proxied by social groups categorised as Other Backward Classes have majority of employment in this sector but their educational levels have been low as compared to the “others” in the social groups. This puts forward the role of education and other skills required to obtain economically viable jobs in this sector. The paper thus suggests implementation of proper education and training programmes keeping into account the local conditions of the region of the state to enhance the skills of the rural population which would benefit and provide better possibility of getting employment in the non-farm sector.

Growth and Structure of Rural Non-farm Employment in Maharashtra: Reflections from NSS Data in the Post Reform Period

In the post-liberalization frame, employment generation in rural non-farm sector has shown a considerable growth at an all-India level but in Maharashtra the growth of employment in this sector has been a bit stagnant. The present study has been undertaken with the objective of examining the structure, growth and developmental potentials of non-farm activities for employment generation in rural Maharashtra and the determinants of entry into this sector employment in the post-liberalization period since Maharashtra is one of the most urbanized states in India and also a state with maximum incidences of farmer suicides. Based on the unit level National Sample Survey data on employment and unemployment for four quinquinnial rounds 50th, 55th, 61st and 66th, it has been observed that majority of the non-farm workers in the state belonged to the Inland Western region in the post-liberalization frame comprising of Pune, Ahmadnagar and Sholapur districts. Gender disparity with regards to employment in rural non-farm sector has been observed as the employment share is dominated by the males while the females constitute a very low share of employment in the same. Employment in trade, hotels and restaurants has seen a considerable increase mainly for the male workers, followed by construction sector. Caste status, proxied by social groups categorized as Other Backward Classes have majority of employment in this sector but their educational levels have been quite low as compared to the “others” in the social groups. This puts forward the role of education and other skills required to obtain economically viable jobs in this sector. The paper thus suggests implementation of proper education and training programmes keeping into account the local conditions of the region of the state to enhance the skills of the rural population which would benefit and provide better possibility of getting employment in non-farm sector.

Dimensions of Poverty in Bihar

The removal of nation wide poverty has consistently been one of the main objectives of Indian policy. The Indian modern history contains several examples of discussion on this topic as far back as 1901. India embarked on a series of Five Year Plans, each containing some kind of poverty eradication or social justice component. The First Five Year Plan was launched in 1951, since then, there have been ten additional plans, the most recent being the Eleventh Five Year Plan launched in 2007. The consideration of economic policies vis-a-vis their impact on the poor highlights a continued emphasis by Indian policy makers on poverty elimination. However, there have been serious shortcomings of government efforts in alleviating poverty during the past few decades. Even after sixty five years of independence, one - fourth of India’s Population still lives in poverty. Bihar is amongst the poorest states in India, with poverty incidence of 42.6 per cent. Per capita net domestic product has been estimated to be $ 446 for Bihar which is about one–third of the corresponding national average ($ 1220) and less than one-fourth of Haryana ($ 2052), one of the richest states in India (Government of Bihar, 2011). The recent studies based on primary data dealing with economic and non- economic aspects of poverty are not readily available which are needed to have deeper insights of different dimensions of poverty in Bihar, India. The present study is designed to examine various socio-economic dimensions of poor households in Bihar. the sample consisted of 160 households, 40 each from each sample villages. Data on various socio-economic aspects are being collected through panel interview with the help of well structured schedules by Resident Investigators. In the present study, data collected for the period 2010-2011 have been used for detailed analysis. Data relating to social class, education level, asset, livestock, migration, employment pattern, housing, and drinking water of poor households are considered for meaningful conclusions. This study is based on the information collected from 65 Below Poverty Line (BPL) households of four villages of Bihar. Bihar agriculture was stagnant in eighties and early nineties and observed poor growth up to tenth five year plan. In eleventh five year plan, there has been growth in agriculture sector in Bihar. Bihar is the second poorest state in India. During last 20 years poverty has declined by more than 14 percent but number of poor persons increased during the period. On the basis of analysis of household level data of VDS villages, it may be inferred that the education, land and asset poverty have been prevalent in Bihar villages. Landlessness and low per capita land are also causing poverty in Bihar. The majority of poor persons are getting employment in non-farm sector and migration is main strategy for maintaining livelihood of poor households in Bihar, but majority of persons migrated out-side state and were engaged mainly in non-farm sector. Their access to electricity, improved living condition and sanitation has been very low which may be the cause of their poor health. Despite various programmes of improving access to financial institutions, the majority of poor households of Bihar, particularly of less developed area are still dependents on money lenders for credit facilities. Various poverty alleviation programmes have not been effective in reduction of poverty up to desired level in Bihar. Hence, there is an urgent need to have holistic approach for improving various social and economic dimensions of state for faster reduction in poverty in Bihar.

Analysis of Fringe Benefits for Nonmetropolitan versus Metropolitan Employee Compensation

There has been little empirical research on nonagricultural labor markets and compensation practices of firms located in nonmetropolitan areas. To a large extent research on nonmetropolitan areas has focused on farm and hired labor market in rural areas (Bryant, Bawden, Saupe). In part lack of empirical research reflects historical importance of agricultural sector, and in part it reflects relatively recent expansion of nonfarm employment in nonmetropolitan areas. A notable exception was 1973 study of rural industrial development and labor markets conducted by Center for Study of Human Resources of University of Texas (Marshall, Till). Increasingly, even farm families are depending on employment in nonfarm sector (Jordan and Hady). Despite industrialization, nonmetropolitan wages remain below national industrial wages (Tweeten and Brinkman). Both Marshall's study and another study of four southern counties by Rungeling et al. find that employment is concentrated in relatively low-paying sectors. Both studies note that fringe benefits offered by rural employers are lower. Rungeling et al. conclude that the lack of fringe benefits is due no doubt to almost total absence