Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis study examines the effect of non‐farm labour participation on poverty reduction in rural Mauritania. Farm households with more land and livestock participate to a greater extent in non‐farm activities compared with households with smaller land or cattle. We study poverty's relationship with non‐farm labour activities in terms of the incidence as well as the intensity and severity of poverty. The study is the first to highlight the contribution of the non‐agricultural sector in the reduction of poverty in the rural areas of Mauritania. We apply probit, propensity score matching and inverse probability weighting techniques to determine the signs and impacts of participation on poverty reduction. The results show that the probability of being poor is 5.9% lower among households that have at least one member participating in non‐farm activities compared with those only associated with the agriculture sector. Participation in non‐farm activities is associated with lower intensity and severity of poverty (3.6% and 1.9%, respectively). We find that surplus labour released by the agriculture sector is absorbed in the non‐farm economy. Income generation through diversification into non‐farm activities therefore seems to be an effective way to reduce poverty in rural areas.

The rural non-farm sector plays an important role in diversifying income for rural households in developing countries and has the potential to emerge as a major source of employment. In some cases it has outgrown the agricultural sector, in part due to the expansion of credit through microfinance institutions that are supported by governments, donor agencies, and businesses. However, future expansion of the rural non-farm sector requires increased flexibility in credit contracts, as well as decreasing the cost of credit and the delivery of complementary inputs, e.g. skills training.

This study explores the rural labour market in Assam. The Work Participation Rates (WPR) for males has increased during the period 1993-94 to 2009-10, whereas the same for females has been fluctuating around a lower level of 15 to 20 per cent. Thus, unemployment rates for females have been higher than males. A sector-wise distribution of workers shows that the proportion of males employed in the farm sector has been declining in favour of the Non-Farm Sector (NFS), while the females are more concentrated in the farm sector. Thus, females stand in a more disadvantageous situation in the rural labour market as indicated by their low WPR, higher unemployment rates and low level of diversification into NFS. However, gender equality is necessary for growth. This is more so with regard to education and employment. India has introduced the concept of inclusive growth in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Inclusive growth ensures opportunities for all sections of the population, with a special emphasis on the poor, particularly women and young people, who are most likely to be marginalised. A rapidly growing population in India has not only increased the size of the rural labour force but has also led to fragmentation of land holdings. Thus, this sector alone cannot create additional employment opportunities, even in high growth agriculture states of India. This has led to the growth of a vibrant non-farm sector. The study comes up with the suggestion that the NFS, with its greater potential of employment generation, can not only solve the unemployment problem, but can also lead to the increased access of women to resources and employment opportunities.

In India, about 60 per cent of the total workforce is engaged in the farm sector, contributing about 25 per cent of the national income. This reflects on the existence of widespread poverty in this sector. It is well known that agricultural growth stimulates non-farm activities through backward and forward linkages. Against this background a major goal of development planning in India is to eliminate poverty and unemployment through reducing the extent of dependence on agriculture. The developmental factors like modernisation of agriculture and its commercialisation, increased demand for non-agricultural goods and services, growing literacy, urbanisation, have tried to pull the labour force away from farm the sector to more lucrative non-farm activities. At the same time, distress factors like poverty; unemployment, underemployment and natural calamities like drought have tried to push the rural workforce away from the farm sector to various non-farm activities to supplement their income. In the rural areas of the country, there has been a decline in the share of agriculture in the workforce. While agriculture is unquestionably the dominant source of employment in rural India, non-agricultural activities are by no means insignificant. To understand the nature and extent of occupational diversification particularly that of rural women and of marginalised communities, the Indian Social Institute1, New Delhi conducted a micro-level study in this area in 2001.

This paper provides evidence on the impacts of agricultural productivity on employment growth and structural transformation of non-farm activities. To guide the empirical work, this paper develops a general equilibrium model that emphasizes distinctions among non-farm activities in terms of tradable-non-tradable and the formal-informal characteristics. The model shows that when a significant portion of village income is spent on town/urban goods, restricting empirical analysis to the village sample leads to underestimation of agriculture's role in employment growth and transformation of non-farm activities. Using rainfall as an instrument for agricultural productivity, empirical analysis finds a significant positive effect of agricultural productivity growth on growth of informal (small-scale) manufacturing and skilled services employment, mainly in education and health services. For formal employment, the effect of agricultural productivity growth on employment is found to be largest in the samples that include urban areas and rural towns compared with rural areas alone. Agricultural productivity growth is found to induce structural transformation within the services sector with employment in formal/skilled services growing at a faster pace than that of low skilled services.

This book provides the most comprehensive analysis of the rural non-farm sector in India available for any developing country, and puts forward a coherent and wide-ranging strategy for promoting the sector to meet national goals of full employment, economic growth and poverty alleviation.

The Development economists and the Policy makers have been seriously thinking and framing certain strategies to create rural-non-agricultural employment since decades. And it has been emerging as a major challenge to the Government. The Non-farm sector plays a vital role in the rural economy by providing additional income and employment to rural workforce, especially those with marginal land or no land. It also plan to utilize local talent and local slack resource which cant be easily transferred and utilized in modern industrial development. The problems of disguised unemployment and the rural development can be solved by shifting surplus labour from agriculture to the non-agricultural activities. But it is difficult to achieve the economic transformation. The major reason for the slow growth of social transformation of the rural economy is accompanied by high population growth.