IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ind/igiwpp/2019-032.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Off-the-farm livelihood choice of farm households in India

Author

Listed:
  • Varun Kumar Das

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

  • A. Ganesh-Kumar

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

Abstract

The process of structural transformation in India presents some unique features not seen in the developed countries, viz., seasonal migration from rural to rural areas within the country for employment within the agricultural sector, and the phenomenon of in situ occupational diversification into off-farm activities by farm households in the country. This paper analyzes the determinants of such off-farm livelihood diversification by farm households. The paper argues this process is driven by various household and farm level push factors as well as structural pull factors that are beyond the farmer's control. To test this hypothesis, the paper estimates a multinomial probit model that distinguishes five categories of off-farm activities, viz., wage labor (farm sector), wage labor (non-farm sector), non-farm entrepreneurship, both wage labor (farm) and non-farm entrepreneurship, and both wage labor (non-farm) and non-farm entrepreneurship. Results show that apart from farm and household conditions, structural features such as the village neighborhood, infrastructure agro-climatic conditions, urbanization, and size of the state economy impact household decision on non-farm diversification.

Suggested Citation

  • Varun Kumar Das & A. Ganesh-Kumar, 2019. "Off-the-farm livelihood choice of farm households in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-032, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
  • Handle: RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2019-032
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2019-032.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luc Christiaensen & Joachim Weerdt & Yasuyuki Todo, 2013. "Urbanization and poverty reduction: the role of rural diversification and secondary towns," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(4-5), pages 435-447, July.
    2. Catherine Wolfram & Orie Shelef & Paul Gertler, 2012. "How Will Energy Demand Develop in the Developing World?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 119-138, Winter.
    3. Vandercasteelen, Joachim & Beyene, Seneshaw Tamru & Minten, Bart & Swinnen, Johan, 2018. "Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 383-399.
    4. Chenery, Hollis & Taylor, Lance, 1968. "Development Patterns: Among Countries And Over Time," Center for International Affairs (CIA) Archive 294545, Harvard University, Center for International Affairs.
    5. Taryn Dinkelman, 2011. "The Effects of Rural Electrification on Employment: New Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3078-3108, December.
    6. Zhao, Yaohui, 1999. "Labor Migration and Earnings Differences: The Case of Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(4), pages 767-782, July.
    7. Shenggen Fan & Ashok Gulati & Sukhadeo Thorat, 2008. "Investment, subsidies, and pro‐poor growth in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(2), pages 163-170, September.
    8. Davis, Benjamin & Di Giuseppe, Stefania & Zezza, Alberto, 2017. "Are African households (not) leaving agriculture? Patterns of households’ income sources in rural Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 153-174.
    9. Frank Ellis, 2000. "The Determinants of Rural Livelihood Diversification in Developing Countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 289-302, May.
    10. repec:hoo:wpaper:e-92-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Russell Cooper & Andrew John, 1988. "Coordinating Coordination Failures in Keynesian Models," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(3), pages 441-463.
    12. Dani Rodrik, 2016. "Premature deindustrialization," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-33, March.
    13. Johnston, Bruce F, 1970. "Agriculture and Structural Transformation in Developing Countries: A Survey of Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 369-404, June.
    14. Julian M. Alston & Philip G. Pardey, 2014. "Agriculture in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(1), pages 121-146, Winter.
    15. Maki Nakajima & Keijiro Otsuka & Takashi Yamano, 2018. "Jobs Off the Farm: Wealth, Human Capital, and Social Group in Rural Eastern India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 111-132, January.
    16. Haggblade, Steven & Hazell, Peter & Reardon, Thomas, 2010. "The Rural Non-farm Economy: Prospects for Growth and Poverty Reduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1429-1441, October.
    17. Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1992. "Agricultural productivity, comparative advantage, and economic growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 317-334, December.
    18. Aggarwal, Shilpa, 2018. "Do rural roads create pathways out of poverty? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 375-395.
    19. Emmanuel Skoufias & Sushenjit Bandyopadhyay & Sergio Olivieri, 2017. "Occupational diversification as an adaptation to rainfall variability in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 48(1), pages 77-89, January.
    20. Margaret S. McMillan & Dani Rodrik, 2011. "Globalization, Structural Change and Productivity Growth," NBER Working Papers 17143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    22. Varun Kumar Das, 2018. "Looking Beyond the Farm and Household: Determinants of On-farm Diversification in India," Working Papers id:12945, eSocialSciences.
    23. Fernandez-Cornejo, Jorge & Mishra, Ashok K. & Nehring, Richard F. & Hendricks, Chad & Southern, Malaya & Gregory, Alexandra, 2007. "Off-Farm Income, Technology Adoption, And Farm Economic Performance," Economic Research Report 7234, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    24. SHI, Xiaoping & Heerink, Nico & Qu, Futian, 2007. "Choices between different off-farm employment sub-categories: An empirical analysis for Jiangxi Province, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 438-455.
    25. Tesfaye Woldeyohanes & Thomas Heckelei & Yves Surry, 2017. "Effect of off-farm income on smallholder commercialization: panel evidence from rural households in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 48(2), pages 207-218, March.
    26. Chavas, Jean-Paul, 2001. "Structural change in agricultural production: Economics, technology and policy," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 263-285, Elsevier.
    27. Winters, Paul C. & Corral, Leonardo & Gordillo, Gustavo, 2001. "Rural Livelihood Strategies and Social Capital in Latin America: Implications for Rural Development Projects," Working Papers 12947, University of New England, School of Economics.
    28. Peter Lanjouw & Rinku Murgai, 2009. "Poverty decline, agricultural wages, and nonfarm employment in rural India: 1983–2004," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 243-263, March.
    29. Rada, Codrina & von Arnim, Rudiger, 2012. "Structural transformation in China and India: A note on macroeconomic policies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 264-275.
    30. Rigg, Jonathan, 2006. "Land, farming, livelihoods, and poverty: Rethinking the links in the Rural South," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 180-202, January.
    31. Birthal, P.S. & Jha, A.K. & Joshi, P.K. & Singh, D.K., 2006. "Agricultural Diversification in North Eastern Region of India: Implications for Growth and Equity," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 1-13.
    32. Jiao, Xi & Pouliot, Mariève & Walelign, Solomon Zena, 2017. "Livelihood Strategies and Dynamics in Rural Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 266-278.
    33. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Zhu, Peixin, 2019. "Identifying livelihood strategies and transitions in rural China: Is land holding an obstacle?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 107-117.
    34. Varun Kumar Das, 2018. "Looking beyond the farm and household: Determinants of on-farm diversification in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2018-023, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    35. Hanan G. Jacoby & Basab Dasgupta, 2018. "Changing wage structure in India in the post-reform era: 1993–2011," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, December.
    36. Anjini Kochar, 1999. "Smoothing Consumption by Smoothing Income: Hours-of-Work Responses to Idiosyncratic Agricultural Shocks in Rural India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 50-61, February.
    37. Naude, Wim & Szirmai, Adam & Haraguchi, Nobuya (ed.), 2015. "Structural Change and Industrial Development in the BRICS," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198725077.
    38. Thomas Reardon & J. Edward Taylor & Kostas Stamoulis & Peter Lanjouw & Arsenio Balisacan, 2000. "Effects of Non‐Farm Employment on Rural Income Inequality in Developing Countries: An Investment Perspective," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 266-288, May.
    39. Unknown, 1961. "The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development," International Journal of Agrarian Affairs, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 3(2), pages 1-1, April.
    40. Hymer, Stephen H & Resnick, Stephen, 1969. "A Model of an Agrarian Economy with Nonagricultural Activities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 493-506, Part I Se.
    41. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    42. Corral, Leonardo & Reardon, Thomas, 2001. "Rural Nonfarm Incomes in Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 427-442, March.
    43. Birthal, Pratap S. & Roy, Devesh & Negi, Digvijay S., 2015. "Assessing the Impact of Crop Diversification on Farm Poverty in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 70-92.
    44. Haraguchi, Nobuya & Cheng, Charles Fang Chin & Smeets, Eveline, 2017. "The Importance of Manufacturing in Economic Development: Has This Changed?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 293-315.
    45. Richard Palmer-Jones & Kunal Sen, 2003. "What has luck got to do with it? A regional analysis of poverty and agricultural growth in rural India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 1-31.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gaillard, Cédric & Dervillé, Marie, 2022. "Dairy farming, cooperatives and livelihoods: lessons learned from six indian villages," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. A. Ganesh Kumar & Varun Kumar Das, 2020. "Do storage and structural factors determine agricultural commercialization in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2020-004, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Varun Kumar Das, 2018. "Looking beyond the farm and household: Determinants of on-farm diversification in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2018-023, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    2. Varun Kumar Das, 2018. "Looking Beyond the Farm and Household: Determinants of On-farm Diversification in India," Working Papers id:12945, eSocialSciences.
    3. Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu, 2019. "The Political Economy Dynamics of Rural Household Income Diversification: A Review of the International Literature," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-290, December.
    4. Nilsson, Pia & Backman, Mikaela & Bjerke, Lina & Maniriho, Aristide, 2017. "One cow per poor family: effects on consumption and crop production in Rwanda," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 462, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    5. Call, Maia & Gray, Clark & Jagger, Pamela, 2019. "Smallholder responses to climate anomalies in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 132-144.
    6. Nilsson, Pia & Backman, Mikaela & Bjerke, Lina & Maniriho, Aristide, 2019. "One cow per poor family: Effects on the growth of consumption and crop production," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-12.
    7. Stein Kristiansen, 2003. "Linkages and Rural Non-Farm Employment Creation: Changing Challenges and Policies in Indonesia," Working Papers 03-22, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    8. Davis, Benjamin & Di Giuseppe, Stefania & Zezza, Alberto, 2017. "Are African households (not) leaving agriculture? Patterns of households’ income sources in rural Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 153-174.
    9. Jan Fałkowski & Maciej Jakubowski & Paweł Strawiński, 2014. "Returns from income strategies in rural Poland," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 22(1), pages 139-178, January.
    10. Zeeshan & Geetilaxmi Mohapatra & Arun Kumar Giri, 2022. "How Farm Household Spends Their Non-farm Incomes in Rural India? Evidence from Longitudinal Data," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(4), pages 1967-1996, August.
    11. Diao, Xinshen & Magalhaes, Eduardo & Silver, Jed, 2019. "Cities and rural transformation: A spatial analysis of rural livelihoods in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 141-157.
    12. Lay, Jann & M'Mukaria, George Michuki & Omar Mahmoud, Toman, 2007. "Boda-bodas rule: Non-agricultural activities and their inequality implications in Western Kenya," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 20, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    13. Marwan Benali & Bernhard Brümmer & Victor Afari‐Sefa, 2018. "Smallholder participation in vegetable exports and age‐disaggregated labor allocation in Northern Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(5), pages 549-562, September.
    14. Emran, M. Shahe & Shilpi, Forhad, 2018. "Beyond dualism: Agricultural productivity, small towns, and structural change in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 264-276.
    15. Pace, Noemi & Sebastian, Ashwini & Daidone, Silvio & Dela O Campos, Ana Paula & Prifti, Ervin & Davis, Benjamin, 2022. "Cash transfers’ role in improving livelihood diversification strategies and well-being: short- and medium-term evidence from Zimbabwe," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Eva‐Maria Egger & Aslihan Arslan & Emanuele Zucchini, 2022. "Does connectivity reduce gender gaps in off‐farm employment? Evidence from 12 low‐ and middle‐income countries," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(1), pages 197-218, March.
    17. Melia, Elvis, 2020. "African jobs in the digital era: Export options with a focus on online labour," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    18. Jehovaness Aikaeli & Martin Julius Chegere & John Rand, 2023. "Complementarity and substitutability between farm and nonfarm activities: Evidence from agricultural households in Tanzania," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 89-111, February.
    19. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Zhu, Peixin, 2019. "Identifying livelihood strategies and transitions in rural China: Is land holding an obstacle?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 107-117.
    20. Getahun, Tigabu & Fetene, Gebeyehu, 2022. "Determinants of Participation in Rural Off-Farm Activities and Its Effects on Food Shortage, Relative Deprivation and Diet Diversity," Discussion Papers 319328, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Structural transformation; non-farm diversification; off-farm choice; wage labor; entrepreneurship; external conditions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • R53 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2019-032. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamprasad M. Pujar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/igidrin.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.