Farm and non-farm employment in rural areas - a perspective for planning

Abstract

The proportion of workers engaged in agriculture to total workforce has remained virtually un changed despite all the efforts at diversification of rural occupational structure over the past thirty years. This continuing dominance of agriculture in th- rural occupational structure can be explained first, by the weak linkages between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and, secondly, by the lack of resilience on the part of such village industries as do exist to meet the demands of the more affluent sections of the peasantry. This paper examines the prospects for expansion of employment in agriculture and rural industry. Even if there were to be a deliberate 'social' intervention in favour of allocating larger resources to agriculture, the labour absorption capacity of Indian agriculture would be limited; and the path of rapid rural industrialisation too is beset with many pitfalls. These problems, and certain deliberate policy decisions - creation of physical and social infrastructures, changes in the present rural credit and pricing policies, etc - that need to be taken to make a dent on rural unemployment are discussed in the concluding section.