The document analyzes gender dynamics of labor use in agriculture using village-level data from 6 villages across 3 districts in Maharashtra and Telangana from 1977-2011. It finds that while rural female labor force participation has declined at the macro level, it has increased at the micro level in the studied villages. The share of female workers in agriculture has risen progressively. Cropping patterns have shifted toward more labor-intensive commercial crops. However, mechanization has reduced labor needs for crops like paddy and wheat. The gender wage gap remains an issue, particularly in non-farm work. Promoting women-friendly technologies, mechanization, and skills training could help address these trends.

1. Gender and Dynamics of Labour Use in
Agriculture - Evidences from the VDSA
N NAGARAJ, PhD
Former Principal Economist
ICRISAT
Presently working at GPS Institute of
Agricultural Management, as Professor and
Programme Coordinator, Bangalore
nagaraj.nareppa@gmail.com

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Data Source & Methodology
Methodology:
Data Source: Village Level Studies of ICRISAT
Villages: 6
Telangana
1) Aurepalle 2) Dokur
(Mahbubnagar Dist)
Maharashtra
1) 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 females
what is interesting is, in most of the years FLPR are higher than male labour force
rates.

8. 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

9. •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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Villages in Mahabubnagar:
Aurepalle and Dokur
Villages in Solapur: Kalman and Shirapur
Villages in Akola: Khnazara and Kinkhed
Selected Districts in
Maharashtra and Telangana

14. 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.