Agricultural underemployment
Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"
Meaning
Agricultural underemployment means farm workers have work for only part of the year. Farm work comes in bursts at sowing and harvest time and is slack in between. Even in the cropping season, there is not enough work for everyone all the time.
The problem is worst in unirrigated tracts, where only one rain-fed crop can be grown. There, people may be without work for 4 to 8 months a year. Irrigation and multiple cropping help, because more crops in a year means more days of work. High cropping intensity is one way to reduce rural unemployment in India, which has little land and many workers.
Example
In the dry, unirrigated parts of western Rajasthan, farmers grow one kharif crop such as bajra. For much of the rest of the year, many move to towns to find work.
Don't confuse with
- Disguised unemployment: here more people work on a farm than are actually needed, so some add nothing to output. Underemployment here means seasonal lack of work.
Related concepts
- Problems of Indian agriculture
- Agricultural indebtedness
- Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
- Digital Agriculture Mission