Rural Employment Generation Research Articles

A Study of Economic Development through Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme with Reference to Annapurna Mahila Grah Udyog in Maharashtra

Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) Government of India has approved the introduction of a new credit linked subsidy programme called Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) by merging the two schemes that were in operation till 31.03.2008, namely Prime Minister’s Rojgar Yojana (PMRY) and Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) for generation of employment opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises in rural as well as urban areas. PMEGP is a central sector scheme administered by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME). At the national level, the Scheme is being implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a statutory organization under the administrative control of the Ministry of MSME as the single nodal agency.

Study on the Challenges Encountered by Eri Silkworm Rearers in Tapioca Cultivation and Eri Rearing in Udalguri District of Assam

Sericulture, specifically eri silk production, plays a crucial role in sustainable rural development and employment generation. This study investigated the constraints faced tapioca cultivation and eri rearing in Udalguri district, Assam. Primary data were collected from 120 respondents through a snowball sampling technique. The rearers encountered personal, social, land utilization, rearing, managerial, economic, marketing, transportation, and institutional challenges. Notable issues included lack of formal education, high labour wages, land scarcity, inadequate rearing facilities, limited knowledge on scientific practices, insufficient capital, price fluctuations, poor marketing infrastructure, transportation costs, and lack of need-based training. The respondents suggested interventions such as government support for infrastructure and equipment, need-based training, formation of cooperatives, effective marketing channels, financial assistance, value-added product training, community rearing centers, land allocation, and extensive plantation of secondary feed plants. Addressing these constraints through targeted strategies is essential for fostering the long-term sustainability of eri silk production and enhancing the socio-economic status of rearers.

Socio-Economic and Psychological Attributes of Sugarcane Grovers of Barelilly District of Uttar Pradesh

The study was conducted in Bareilly district U.P., and the result of study will assist to various government organisation, stakeholders, sugarcane industry and NGOs to frame a specific programme, plan and policy for their further developments. The sugarcane industry refers to processing, manufacturing and value addition of sugarcane produces to produce jaggery, sugar, bagasse, molasses, papers, plastic, alcohol and biofuels etc. It is one of the most important sectors of the Indian economy, as it contributes to the rural development, employment generation, and export earnings. The study was carried out with 100 respondents. The result explore that, majority of respondents (70%) belong to middle age group, most of them (80%) were literate with formally educated (25%) up to high school level, majority of them (58%) were belongs to other backward cast, with mostly of them (96%) were Hindu, their family were nuclear type (64%) with medium family size (65%), majority of them (42%) were small land holders, maximum (87%) had pukka house, and agriculture as a main occupation, majority of respondents (45%) belong to ₹120001- ₹180000 annual income, they were (100%) ensure participation in gram panchayat activity, majority of them (62%) have medium level of overall material possession, under the various aspect of material possession, most of respondents (93%) possess diesel engine, they were (100%) perform their agriculture field operation by use of sickle, most of them (99%) were also use bicycle as a transportation mean, they (100%) had cots as household materials possession, most of them (55%) were medium level of communicational media, also most of them (65%) and (66%) were have medium level of economic motivation and risk orientation respectively.

Agency and time poverty: Linking decision-making powers and leisure time of male and female farmers of Central India

The present study examines the gender difference in the workload and its association with the agency for intra-household decision-making. Analyzing the cross-sectional data collected from wheat farmers of Central India in 2019, we observe significant differences between male and female respondents with respect to the total number of work hours and agency on farming activities and consumption expenditure. While women provided fewer labor hours than men for different farming operations, their available leisure hours were compromised due to a greater involvement in household chores (reproductive labor). Irrespective of their higher workload, women’s involvement in intra-household decision-making was limited. More importantly, there was a tradeoff between the leisure time available for women and their involvement in decision-making. Women with agency had less leisure time than others. Land ownership was associated with a higher workload for female respondents. However, neither agency nor the possession of land titles had a significant effect in determining male farmers’ work or leisure hours. The leisure hours were particularly limited for farmers belonging to marginalized castes. These findings have implications for designing and implementing interventions with labor-related outcomes, such as programs for rural employment generation and dissemination of labor-saving technologies in agriculture.

Increasing Pressure on Forest Resources and its Consequences in India

This is a review study based on the research articles published in peer reviewed journals and cited in various books over time. The purpose of the study is to highlight the importance of forest resources and major issues pertaining to these resources in India and underlining the consequences of forest depletion. The study focuses on the role of forests in rural livelihood, employment and income generation, poverty alleviation, and interaction of women with forests. Issues like market failure and trade-off between forest and economic development have also been touched upon. The way various researchers depict the tremendous pressure on forest resources and consequences of the same have been identified through review of the research studies.

COVID-19 disaster and employment generation program in a developing economy

We develop a three-sector Harris-Todaro (HT)-type model for a developing economy to analyse the failure of the employment generation program in the rural sector as a policy response to counter Covid-19-induced reverse migration of labour. First, we distinguish between two alternative modes of implementation of the program and show how they produce diverse outcomes on both unemployment and welfare. Welfare is measured in terms of Sen’s (Sen, J Public Econ 4:387–403, 1974) index which is inequality (distributional) sensitive. If the authority’s sole target is to lower unemployment, the policy fails miserably because it not only raises unemployment but also worsens welfare. On the contrary, if the policy aims at both rural infrastructure development and additional employment creation, it does not necessarily worsen social welfare. However, the rural employment generation program may turn out to be counterproductive in the latter case provided the urban region is relatively more labour abundant vis-a-vis the entire rural region. Numerical examples are constructed to validate the sufficient and necessary condition leading to the counterproductive outcome. Finally, we have advocated in favour of a composite policy that might succeed in minimizing further possible damage of the COVID-19 disaster.

Spatial Distribution of SDGs Accomplished Under MGNREGA Beyond SDG1

Nations across the world share common responsibility towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To monitor the progress of individual goals and their global-level comparisons, a set of targets and indicators are developed by the experts. However, systematic methods for assessing spatio-temporal progress towards achieving the SDGs are lacking. This study demonstrates the use of geographically referenced information (GIS) analysis in mapping the SDGs as achieved under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) programme in India, taking Uttarakhand state as a case study. Geotagged data of assets representing various work categories permissible under MGNREGA are linked to the targets and indicators of various SDGs. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) function is used to derive spatially explicit maps. Sub-national-level composite analysis of overall contribution of the MGNREGA to SDGs is carried out district wise for better understanding. Results obtained show significant spatial variation in the distribution of works across the districts, reflecting their varying priorities as MGNREGA is a demand-driven scheme. The future implication of the study is a vastly improved ability to derive latent information based on geographical indicators for targeting interventions and developing informed strategies towards SDGs.

Agro-tourism in Rajasthan: A way to bring down issues in our surrounding environment

The study attempts to show the impacts of agro tourism in environmental and climatic betterment of the state and nation. The results of this study will tell us that agro-tourism will help to improve environmental and climatic factors and also plays a great role as an additional income source for farmers and government. General public is now-a-day’s facing problem because of environmental instability and this can be cured if we consider agro tourism sector as a solution and incorporate this sector too like other tourism sector. Maharashtra was the first to understand this sectors demand and used this concept very well to improve its GDP and environment. Agro tourism help to create awareness among public about the environment by providing income source and environmental benefits both simultaneously. It creates knowledge about agriculture science.
 A modern style of development proposes rationalexploitation of agricultural resources together with the rediscovery of heritage both historical and naturalistic as a means to reach sustainable development. Agro tourism acts as the contact point between the tourist’s expectations of healthy environment, natural and fresh products, rediscovery of nature and best touristic services with an unforgettable experience. The study assumes the importance of environmental and climatic betterment to neutralize or reduce its harmful effects in near future. It helps to evaluate that how a sustainable development can be reached without causing damage to our environment. This synergy between agriculture and tourism capitalized on the combined benefits of development in agriculture as a primary sector and tourism as a service sector which further boost rural employment generation and environmental benefits. Thus, the paper suggests that agro-tourism has the potential for developing income opportunities and creates new ways for environmental and climatic betterment

Toward Sustainable Rural Ecotourism Evolution: The Case Of Kiskan, Iran

In Iran, due to the multiplicity, diversity and cultural-natural potential of rural areas, developing ecotourism is accepted as a key solution to sustainable rural development. The government putting strong emphasis on analysing the capacities and obstacles of promoting rural tourism in order to making effective strategies. Kiskan Rural District (KRD) in Kerman Province has great potential for ecotourism development to diversify rural economy, employment and income generation. So the purpose of this study is to investigate the rural ecotourism situation of KRD through SWOT analysis. It is an applied research that uses documentary and field methods including observation, unstructured interview and a questionnaire to data gathering. A group of local managers, counting Village Council Members and Rural Mayors, were selected by snowball sampling method. To this end, the status of rural ecotourism in KRD is determined and the weight of each of the four SWOT factors is measured. Results show that KRD ecotourism development strategy is «SO» (aggressive), which should exploit the strengths to take advantage of the available opportunities.

Avifauna habitability of wetlands in an intensive cultural landscape: insights from the Ichhamati floodplains, India.

Wetlands of Ichhamati floodplains, India, are endowed repositories of native and migratory avifauna. However, unplanned utilization and unregulated resource extractions had led to the continual ecological deterioration of these wetland habitats. Considering avifauna habitability as an environmental manifestation of wetland health, the present study attempted to assess the habitability status of major 18 wetlands (> 10ha) of the floodplains under different livelihood dependency patterns. Accordingly, six widely used ecological indicators of avifauna distribution, species composition, and abundance had been applied to construct a composite index of avifauna habitability for two phases, viz. 2012-2013 and 2017-2018. Results indicated that wetlands with mixed livelihood practices (average habitability index score 2.471) were having statistically significant (p< 0.001) better habitability than those with agriculture and fishing dominated livelihood patterns (average index score 0.378 and - 2.746 respectively) in 2012-2013. The same scenario prevailed in 2017-2018 although overall wetland habitability was found to be declining throughout the floodplains during this period, especially in agriculture dominated wetlands (average index score 0.185). Faulty implementation of rural employment generation programs and distance cum lesser connectivity of wetlands with the perennial river channel had been identified as the prime detrimental factors of this degeneration and consequent loss of avifauna diversity.

Opportunities and Constraints in Honey Production and Marketing: The Case of Shebedino District, Sidama Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Apiculture is considered as one of the income-generating activities for resource-poor farmers including women, youth and the unemployed sectors of the community. It also provides attractive options for rural employment and income generation in harsh agro-ecosystems where crop production is marginal and the risk of crop failure is high. Even though, various constraints were hindering production and marketing of honey in Shebedino district of Sidama zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia which is the second highest producer of honey in Sidama Zone. Therefore, this study was conducted with the objective of investigating opportunities and constraints hindering honey production and marketing in Shebedino district. To achieve this objective, both primary and secondary data have been collected from 156 farm households, 31 traders, 7 processors and 30 consumers and various literatures. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS statistical package. The result of the study indicated that farmers’ indigenous knowledge of beekeeping; agro-ecological condition of the Woreda ; support of governmental organizations and some other NGOs; availability of strong domestic market for honey, high production, and ease of licensing were identified as the main opportunities in honey production and marketing. Changes in weather condition, pests and predators, some pesticides used in crops, absconding, absence of some modern beekeeping equipment, lack of scientific knowledge on beekeeping, low participation of women in the sector, seasonality of honey and price fluctuation were identified as constraints in honey production and marketing in the study district. Keywords: Apiculture, opportunities, challenges DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/9-23-06 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Rural Income and Employment Generation: Contribution of Common Property Resources in Valley and Hill Districts of Manipur

In developing country like India where population is large and unemployment is high, focus on common property resources (CPR) is a must especially in backward regions. Manipur is one of the least developed terminal states in the country which has a total geographical area of 22347 square kilometres (GoM, 2013). Importance of CPRs in the state is multifold. It has been the source of livelihood for several. The study has attempted to identify the sources of household (HH) income, role of CPRs in the livelihood of the people in the state in terms of income and employment generation. Complete enumeration of households and descriptive statistics had been employed to accomplish the study. Identified income sources in the selected valley and hill has been classified under three main sectors viz., farm, non-farm and common property resources (CPRs) income. CPRs based activities in the valley and hill villages vary and generate income and employment to both male and female household members. Income from CPRs based activities contributes 9.38 and 32.59 per cents in the valley and hill village, respectively. In valley village male spends maximum time collecting firewood (22.50 man-days) and females in collection of food items (13.75 man-days). While in hill village, in charcoal making male spends 157.5 man-days and female 135 man-days.

Curbing Youth Restiveness and Conflicts Through Effectual Structural Policies for Rural Employment Generation in Nigeria

The apparent neglect of Nigeria’s rural sector has provoked daunting challenges including youth restiveness, ethno-religious conflicts, unemployment and pervasive poverty. It is logical to finger rural unemployment as the antecessor of those other consequences. While it has been argued that the rate of unemployment is higher in urban than rural Nigeria, the nature and magnitude of rural unemployment (mostly underemployment) is becoming worrisome. For instance, youth unemployment in the country averaged 23.63 percent from 2014 until 2018 reaching an all-time high of 38 percent in Q2 of 2018 and a record low of 11.70 percent in Q4 of 2014. Furthermore, the Labour Statistics Report of Nigeria in Q4 of 2017 showed that there are about 7.9 million Nigerian youths aged 15 – 34 that are unemployed, mostly in the rural areas. Thus paper makes an introspection into what went wrong and explores vistas through effectual structural policies on rural infrastructures, agricultural transformation, skills acquisition, robust and sustainable credit and so on. These policies are aimed at realizing the multi-pronged goals of curbing youth restiveness, checking rural – urban migration, generating income and employment and transforming the agricultural sector for meaningful contribution to the country’s GDP. The need is imperative and there is no better time for these policies than now. Keywords: Youth restiveness policies rural employment generation DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-16-20 Publication date : August 31 st 2019

Value chain analysis of shrimp of Dacope upazila in Bangladesh

Shrimp farming of Bangladesh is one of the most important contributors for its economic development and rural employment generation. The study examined the value chain actors, functions, governance and value chain mapping; estimated value addition in terms of cost and margin in Chalna, Tildanga and Bajua villages of Dacope upazila under Khulna District. Twenty five farmers and 55 traders were interviewed for collecting primary data. Descriptive analysis was performed for reaching the objectives.The study found that farmer, faria, bepari, aratdar, depot owner, commission agent/supplier, processing plant and retailer were value chain actors for shrimp. It was observed that value chain governance was dominated by external parties (legislative governance) and national bodies dominate judicial government. It was identified that processing plants add highest value at Tk. 228 per kg. On the basis of share of profit and cost it was revealed that processing plant was the dominant actor in the chain. Highest value addition, marketing cost and net value addition was Tk. 22800 per quintal, Tk. 13988 per quintal and Tk. 8901 per quintal incurred by processing plant respectively. Percentage of total cost and percentage of total profit was highest for processing plant at 62.85% and 43.71% respectively. The policy implication is that it is necessary to establish storage facility and government monitoring of shrimp markets for the improvement of the present situation.&#x0D; Progressive Agriculture 30 (1): 65-74, 2019

Rural Employment Generation In India: A Critical View From Rajasthan

Rural employment generation was initiated in India through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in 2005 and related NREGS schemes, to provide better social and food security to socially and economically depressed rural workers. By now, the implementation of this scheme is known to be not equally satisfactory throughout India, with significant variations in different states and localities. This article, based on intensive fieldwork over 1 year in remote villages of Deogarh and Bhim blocks of Rajasamand district, explores the functioning of the scheme in rural Rajasthan. It identifies three important roadblocks to effective NREGA implementation and analyses their impact: persistence of caste-based inequalities and social interactions among different groups of rural people, differential occupational interests of potential workers and lack of initiative of the respective panchayats.

Project for Rural Asset Development and Employment Generation

In every county, sizeable proportion of population lives in villages or counties away from urban cities where they get clean air and peaceful environment but lack in employment and urban city facilities. Therefore every government tries to improve the rural life and provide the minimum facilities required to lead a decent and meaningful life. Thrust is given to improve village infrastructures, water supply, small scale industries, health care and education. In this paper, the case studies of a village in India have been discussed. The author was involved in providing basic designs for land development and setting up an office complex and a Timber processing shop where the raw material, timber is available in plenty.

Post Liberalization Structural Changes: An Analysis of Indian Labour Market and its Occupational Structure

India has experienced a rapid growth of economy, and recorded rising in the share of the non-agricultural income and employment after economic liberalization (1991). But the sizes of work participation rate as a whole and especially for females are relatively low in India. The study of Indian labour market is significant because a large ‘demographic dividend’ should be accommodating in Indian labour market. Indian economy and its occupational structure suffer with some serious problems. Though the GDP growth in non-agricultural sectors is everincreasing but employment in agricultural sector did not show any dramatic change. Rural transformation and employment generation in non agricultural sectors is associated with low quality of job as well as low wage earning. In this way disproportionate growth of three sectors of economy has developed. Only 13.4% (2011) workers are found in manufacturing which is considered as the base of economy. Growth of jobs in organized sectors (public and private) is almost stagnant during last decade. It is hopeful that, female contribution and participation in Indian economy is increased but a large proportion of them found to be ‘marginal worker’ and gender differentials in wage is exist. To get opportunity of demographic dividend more ‘good job’ should be incremented for educated and skilled young potential workers. In this regard different public skill development programmes should be more proactive and the curricula of college, universities should be modified as per requirement of the new job market. It is a great challenge for Indian economy to do so. This paper aims to discuss about the nature and extension of the structural transformation and tries to focus on demographic dividend opportunity in Indian economy.

Simultaneous pretreatment and saccharification of bamboo for biobutanol production

With the depletion of the fossil fuels and rising global living standards biofuels research is gaining impetus since it is environmental friendly, sustainable and leads to rural employment generation. In this context, biobutanol presents a feasible option since its energy content is more than that of ethanol and moreover it can be distributed in the existing gasoline distribution pipelines. In the present study, efforts have been made to develop a process for the production of fermentable sugars through simultaneous pretreatment and saccharification. This process is advantageous since it leads to reduction in the overall processing time required for reducing sugars production. Bamboo was chosen as the lignocellulosic which was treated with concoction of laccase extracted from Pleurotus djamor and cellulase-xylanase extracted from Trichoderma reesei. The potential of these sugars for biobutanol production has been studied using Clostridium beijerinckii ATCC 55025-E604. Process parameters governing the system viz., temperature, incubation time, pH, cellulase: laccase ratio in the enzyme cocktail and solid loading were optimized using response surface methodology and the optimum values determined were 54.54°C, 8h, 4.92, 8.5 (v/v) and 14.74% (w/v) respectively leading to a reducing sugar content of 503.16mg/g with 72.44% saccharification efficiency. Sugar fractionation quantified through HPLC revealed that the reducing sugar contained 36.89% glucose, 38.81% cellobiose and 24.29% pentoses (xylose and arabinose). Broth containing reducing sugar was further fermented using C. beijerinckii resulting in butanol content of 6.45g/L.

Evaluation of world’s largest social welfare scheme: An assessment using non-parametric approach

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the world’s largest social welfare scheme in India for the poverty alleviation through rural employment generation. This paper aims to evaluate and rank the performance of the states in India under MGNREGA scheme. A non-parametric approach, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to calculate the overall technical, pure technical, and scale efficiencies of states in India. The sample data is drawn from the annual official reports published by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Based on three selected input parameters (expenditure indicators) and five output parameters (employment generation indicators), I apply both input and output oriented DEA models to estimate how well the states utilize their resources and generate outputs during the financial year 2013–14. The relative performance evaluation has been made under the assumption of constant returns and also under variable returns to scale to assess the impact of scale on performance. The results indicate that the main source of inefficiency is both technical and managerial practices adopted. 11 states are overall technically efficient and operate at the optimum scale whereas 18 states are pure technical or managerially efficient. It has been found that for some states it necessary to alter scheme size to perform at par with the best performing states. For inefficient states optimal input and output targets along with the resource savings and output gains are calculated. Analysis shows that if all inefficient states operate at optimal input and output levels, on an average 17.89% of total expenditure and a total amount of $780million could have been saved in a single year. Most of the inefficient states perform poorly when it comes to the participation of women and disadvantaged sections (SC&ST) in the scheme. In order to catch up with the performance of best performing states, inefficient states on an average need to enhance women participation by 133%. In addition, the states are also ranked using the cross efficiency approach and results are analyzed. State of Tamil Nadu occupies the top position followed by Puducherry, Punjab, and Rajasthan in the ranking list. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first pan-India level study to evaluate and rank the performance of MGNREGA scheme quantitatively and so comprehensively.

Marketing channel vis-a-vis economic viability of ornamental fish cum aquarium business in Agartala, Tripura

Economic viability of ornamental fish business is utmost important as this sector has been identified as a powerful tool for rural income & employment generation. The study was conducted in Agartala, Tripura in the year 2015–2016 among 14 traders actively involved in ornamental fish business in Agartala. The data collected through observation, personal interviews with designed interview schedule as well as focus group discussion with the respondents revealed that majority of the respondents (78.57%) were young aged, all are literate and 28.57% of them were graduates. Around 42.86% of the traders considered aquarium business as their main occupation. Around 71.43% were doing retail business and 28.57% were performing as wholesaler-cum- retailer. Majority of traders (28.57%) earned between 3,60,000-4,32,000 per annum. Among the identified six different channels in ornamental fish marketing in Tripura, majority of the traders (64.29%) used to take benefit of marketing channel V due to the higher profit margin i.e., purchased ornamental fishes from the producers of outside state and used to sell directly to the consumers and/or to the retailers. Profitability analysis of the ornamental fish trading indicated that all the cases studied generated positive net returns. Payback period were very short i.e., 0.14 years and 0.29 years for wholesaler cum retailers and retailers respectively which reflects that the investment in the business of ornamental fisheries and aquarium is less risky as well as repaid in the shorter time period and is considered the better choice as investment or action costs are recovered sooner and are available again for further use.