IFPRI-Gender and Dynamics of Labour Use in Agriculture - Evidences from the VDSA-N Nagaraj

Gender and Dynamics of Labour Use in Agriculture - Evidences from the VDSA

N NAGARAJ, PhDFormer Principal Economist

ICRISATPresently working at GPS Institute of

Agricultural Management, as Professor and Programme Coordinator, Bangalore

[email protected]

Context• Rural labour market has been undergoing rapid changes

due to several factors viz- Increased economic growth has led to diversified

opportunities for employment - Introduction of employment guarantee scheme- Demographic change along with expansion of universal

education for all girls and boys- Increased connectivity and mobility from rural to urban

areas- Structural transformation in the Indian agricultural

economy• The nature of labour absorption and the gender dimension

of the changing agricultural employment structure assume considerable significance

Key Issues• The lower level participation rate of women vis-à-vis that

of men over time has been one of the prime concerns with a view to test the hypothesis of feminization of agriculture

• This paper attempts to analyze the dynamics of female labour use in agriculture based on Village level data

• Specifically the study aims at: 1) Analyzing the trends in labour use pattern by gender, 2) Assessing female work participation rates, 3) Estimating crop wise per hectare use of male and

female labour and the wage gap between male and female.

Data Source & MethodologyMethodology:Data Source: Village Level Studies of ICRISAT Villages: 6Telangana 1) Aurepalle 2) Dokur (Mahbubnagar Dist) Maharashtra 2) Kalman 2) Shirapur (Solapur Dist)3) Kanzara 4) Kinkhed (Akola Dist)Period of Study– !977-79 to 2009-11– Data Collection: Household survey Resident FI’s– Sampling: stratified random sampling representing landless, small, medium

and large farmers – Data has been analyzed and computed descriptive statistics

Figure 1. Rural Labor Force Participation Rates (%) in India (UPSS)

Source: Reddy (2014), Table 1.

The rural male LFPR has been stable over the years at about 56 %, while rural female LFPR which was at about 33 to 34 % till 2004-05, has shown a steep decline to 26.5 % by 2009-10

Changing gender composition of rural agricultural Employment

• There has been an absolute declining trend in the total agricultural workers since 2004-05.

• This phenomenal decline is attributed to decline of female workforce in agriculture.

• The decline in male workers in agriculture is driven mainly by the decline in male agricultural labourers from 52.7 million in 2004-05 to 47.8 in 2011-12.

• In the case of female workers, it is more due to an absolute decline in female cultivators by 17.4 million which was much more than the decline in female agricultural labourers (9.7 m).

• Though there has been declining trend of female work participation at macro level, but at micro level, the trend is different

The adult male and female work participation rates for the ICRISAT-VDSA villages in the three districts show high participation rates for both males and femaleswhat is interesting is, in most of the years FLPR are higher than male labour force rates.

Baring 1977-79, in all the three regions there has been a consistent trend of increase in the share of female workers in agriculture. In Mahabubnagar, the share of female workers in agriculture has not only been rising but also female agricultural workers have been more than male workers since 2001-03. Between 1975 to 2011, progressive feminization of labor in agriculture occurred

•In Mahabubnagar villages had castor, groundnut and paddy as major crops in TE 1980 but by TE 2011, castor almost vanished•Cotton which showed up only in 1986, it is tending to become almost a mono-crop.•Solapur sample households were dominated by Sorghum (TE 1980)•By TE 2001 Sugarcane and Pigeon pea have emerged as the other important crops together account for 50 % of the GCA • In Akola, cotton was an important crop followed by sorghum and wheat in TE 1980. By TE 2011, wheat has emerged as a major crop•There has been shift in favour of more labour intensive non-food commercial crops like cotton (Mahabubnagar) and sugarcane (Solapur), while food crops like paddy (Mahabubnagar), wheat (Akola) and sorghum (Solapur) continue to be part of the major crops.

Changes in Cropping Pattern in the Sample Areas and Labour use

Crop-wise/ha use of male and Female labour in major crops

• Of the 7 major crops presently in vogue, pigeon pea and sorghum turns out to be least labour absorbing crops

• The labour use was much higher in Akola villages vis-a-vis Solapur villages

• Wheat, which was relatively high labour absorbing in the TE 1980 has experienced drastic reduction in human labour by TE 2011 (from 61 to 40 mds/ha)

• Paddy which was highly labour intensive crop, with highest use of female labour has been experienced steep reduction in labour use (263 to 139 mds/ha)

• In the case of other 3 labour intensive crops, cotton, groundnut and sugarcane, the relative share of female labour use has increased b/w TE 1980 to TE 2011

Gender and Wage-Gap

• Gender wage gap is a common problem in agriculture and non-agriculture.

• It shows that male-female wage gap is much higher in non-farm than in the farm sector

• The female non-farm wage level is < female farm wage level, thus making the gender wage gap in non-farm sector in Mahabubnagar much wider.

• In Solapur male and female wages in non-farm are much higher than in farm sector and the wage gap in both in farm and non-farm sectors are relatively less

• In Akola, female wage rates in agriculture and non-agriculture have been equal, while the non-farm male wage level has been much higher than male farm wages.

• The gender gap in non-farm sector is much higher than in the farm sector in Akola

Policy implications• Strong evidence on high female labour force participation• There is incontrovertible evidence that the share of female labour in

agriculture in these regions has been on the rise proving the feminization of agriculture

• At a crop-level analysis, there is absolute decline of male labour per hectare and absolute increase in female labour in the case of three high labour intensive crops

• Paddy, a highly labour intensive crop, with almost highest share in the GCA of the country, there is drastic reduction in both male and female labour due to mechanization of ploughing and harvesting

• With all the dynamics in female labour participation in agriculture, one persistent problem is the wage gap between male and female

• Thus efforts towards technologies development to suit women is the need of the hour.

• In response to male labour scarcity, promoting mechanization along with custom hiring facility is crucial.

• Capacity building programmes for skill augmentation especially for female

Villages in Mahabubnagar: Aurepalle and Dokur

Villages in Solapur: Kalman and Shirapur Villages in Akola: Khnazara and Kinkhed

Selected Districts in Maharashtra and

Telangana

There has been an absolute declining trend in the total agricultural workers since 2004-05. This phenomenal decline is attributed to decline of female workforce in agriculture. The decline in male workers in agriculture is driven mainly by the decline in male agricultural labor.