Poverty and Employment: Roles of Agriculture and Non-agriculture

This paper examines issues and policies in the roles of agriculture and non-agriculture in raising employment and reduction in poverty. First, it provides poverty trends in the pre and post-reform periods. Second, it analyses factors for decline in poverty and different views on the roles of agriculture and non-agriculture in reducing poverty. Third, it looks at the agricultural policies including doubling of farm income. Fourth, it examines briefly issues in rural non-farm sector, manufacturing and services, social protection programmes and inequality. Apart from agriculture, focus is needed on two areas for reduction in poverty: raising quality employment and education. Manufacturing and services are important sectors for absorption of labour. India has to forge its own path of manufacturing development. Reduction in inequalities is important for its own sake but also for poverty reduction. Finally, improvement in gender is equality crucial for raising GDP and poverty reduction significantly.