Female labour absorption in Andhra Pradesh agriculture
1999
Subrahmanyam, S. (Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad (India))
The introduction of HYV seed and mechanisation in paddy cultivation, the two opposing forces on labour demand, has the net effect of a mild increase in the demand for total labour, but a steep increase in the demand for female labour by 85 per cent. This has increased the share of female labour in rice cultivation from 30 per cent to 47 per cent. All this was possible because mechanisation was not introduced in the operations performed by females. If sowing and harvesting of paddy are mechanised, there will be a large scale displacement of female labour. The increase in the demand for female labour led to rise in the share of casual labour in paddy cultivation. However, this cannot be interpreted as withdrawal of female family labour on prestige considerations after the increase in incomes resulting from increase in yield. Females of 85 per cent of the cultivating households participate in the family farm activities and among marginal and small farmers, this proportion is still higher. Under the present farming conditions, each hectare of land (net area) generates employment for 137 days of which more than one half is for females. However, the generation of employment per hectare varies between 97 days in the low cropping intensity zone with groundnut as the main crop and 257 days in high cropping intensity zone with paddy as the main crop. Paddy, cotton and chillies have high total as well as female labour content. Sugarcane has the lowest demand for female labour, despite its high demand for total labour. The differences in demand for labour across zones arises due to both cropping intensity and cropping pattern.
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