HUMAN LABOR USE IN EXISTING AND PROSPECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SEMI-ARID TROPICS OF PENINSULAR INDIA

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of newly developed land, water, and crop management technologies on existing labor patterns in a SAT region, in this case pennisular India. ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) based its study on six villages, detailing the use of family and hired labor by 30 farmers in each village. Interviews were conducted every 2-3 weeks throughout l975-76. The sample households were selected using stratified random sampling, with small, medium, and large farms represented equally. Topics covered in this report include labor patterns and the size of the farm, composition of labor (male/female, family/hired workers), seasonality of labor use, regional labor patterns, and labor patterns with the introduction of watershed-based technologies. For the most part, there was found to be an inverse relationship between farm size and total labor-use (family and hired) per unit of land. Increased labor use by small landholders may be accounted for in one or more of three ways: l) an increase in the intensity of cropping, 2) adoption of a more labor-intensive cropping pattern, and 3) greater use of labor per hectare under individual crops. There was a positive correlation between hired labor and farm size. With increasing prosperity, many members of wealthy families tended to drop out of the labor force -- particularly women and children. Nevertheless, the extent of labor hired by small farmers was by no means insignificant. Authors conclude that the area"s existing irrigation systems (tank and well) have tremendous employment-creating potential, and that the introduction of new technologies would result in competition for labor at strategic times in crop-growing seasons. Report includes a bibliography (43 publications, l956-78).