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Is the agriculture sector overcrowded?
Bulk of the employment in India is concentrated in the agriculture sector. In rural areas, agriculture constitutes up to 68% of the total rural employment. Approximately 81% female workers and 66% male workers in rural areas are engaged in agriculture.
Bulk of the employment in India is concentrated in the agriculture sector. In rural areas, agriculture constitutes up to 68% of the total rural employment. Approximately 81% female workers and 66% male workers in rural areas are engaged in agriculture. Obviously, most of the workers engaged in agriculture are highly under-employed with very low levels of return. Diversification of the rural workforce to non-agriculture activities has been very low and the same has been negligible in case of the rural women workforce.
Despite slow diversification process from farm to non-farm activities, the agriculture sector has reflected enough dynamism in recent years. Although diversification of the female workforce to non-farm activities in rural areas has been limited up to 2 to 3% since 1993-94, the same in case of male workers has been to the extent of 7 to 8% during the same period. Most of this diversification to the rural non-farm activities has taken place in sectors such as construction, transport and food processing industries.
Retail trade has also contributed to rural workforce diversification. However, despite all these positive reflections, diversification of the female workforce has been very limited. This may be because of their low education and skill levels. One of the important policy implications to promote rural non-farm employment is to provide skill and training to women workers in rural areas.
