Changing income and employment structure of agricultural labour in Punjab
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Date
2020
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The present study has been designed to investigate the income and employment structure,
decomposition pattern and impactofdifferentfactorsaffecting demand for agricultural
labourin Punjab. The primary data was collected from 270 agricultural labourers in three
different agro-climatic zones of state and secondary data was extracted from state and
centrally sponsored projects. The results of the study showed that the share of agricultural
workforce declined from 55.25 per cent in 1991 to 30 per cent during the period, 2011. The
compound annual growth rate showed that there was decline in casual agricultural labour to
the tune of 4.06-man days per hectare annually since 1990. The income of agricultural labour
household was observed as `10615.95 per month and consumption expenditure of farm
laboures was recorded as `11493.93 per month. On an average the liabilities of agricultural
labourers as debt was `57143 and average value of owned household assets was `225701.
The poverty head count ratio was recorded as 8.89 per cent. The major reasons for
casualisation of farm labour were overuse of permanent labour hours by the farmers and
influx of cheap migrant labour in the state. The higher wage rate and freedom of work
were the main reasons for the contractualisation of agricultural labour. The farm labour
employment was declined as 18.17 hours per hectareduring 2008-09 to 2015-16. The
decomposition of declined agriculture labour employment showed that the technology
replaced 28.56 hours of farm labour. Contrary to this, cropping intensity contributed an
increase in agriculture labour demand as 12.35 hours per hectare during the same period. It
was observed that one per cent increase in the cropping intensity would incline the use of
labour by 1.33 per cent, while one per cent increase in wage rate would decline the labour
demand by 4.7 per cent. The agriculture laboures household of the state facing the problem
of illiteracy, healthcare, debt burden, use of drugs, less availability of farm work, and
deprived economic condition. The study brings into account that during the last two and half
decades, most of the zones experienced a significant decrease in use of agriculture demand in
the state. It was concluded that agricultural labour use pattern changed as permanent to casual
and to contractual in the state.
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Citation
Gurlal Singh (2020). Changing income and employment structure of agricultural labour in Punjab (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.