IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae18/277395.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effect of Mechanization on the welfare of marginalized sections of the society

Author

Listed:
  • Joshi, E.
  • Veettil, P. Chellattan

Abstract

This paper examines the degree of mechanization in farm operations using household level data from four Indian states. It further explores the differential returns to farming and assesses the direct and indirect welfare distributional outcomes produced by mechanization. Findings suggest that the marginalized groups as defined in the study (those with limited factor endowments; those belonging to disadvantaged social groups and those who are subsistence oriented) exhibit lower levels of agricultural mechanization and earn substantially lower farm and off-farm incomes compared to others. The objective of the paper is to investigate how a technological change can generate major economic benefits but at the same time provoke adverse effects on the marginalized section of society. Decomposition of displaced labor as a result of mechanization shows that the displaced hired labor mainly belongs to the most vulnerable social groups of STs and SCs which forms the bulk of the rural labor force. The results demand undertaking development approaches that have the potential of bridging the productivity gaps promoting inclusive growth in the agriculture sector and to formulate strategies that can overcome the constraints faced by the marginalized farmers, thereby making farming more resilient and equitable. Acknowledgement :

Suggested Citation

  • Joshi, E. & Veettil, P. Chellattan, 2018. "Effect of Mechanization on the welfare of marginalized sections of the society," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277395, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae18:277395
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.277395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/277395/files/1942.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.277395?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonalde Desai & Veena Kulkarni, 2008. "Changing educational inequalities in india in the context of affirmative action," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 245-270, May.
    2. Vernon W. Ruttan, 2002. "Productivity Growth in World Agriculture: Sources and Constraints," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 161-184, Fall.
    3. Deshpande, Ashwini, 2001. "Caste at Birth? Redefining Disparity in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 130-144, February.
    4. Raghav Gaiha1 & Ganesh Thapa & Katsushi Imai & Vani S. Kulkarni, 2007. "Disparity, Deprivation and Discrimination in Rural India," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 1307, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    5. Hayami, Yujiro & Ruttan, Vernon W., 1993. "Induced Technical and Institutional Change Evaluation and Reassessment: Two Chapters," Bulletins 7479, University of Minnesota, Economic Development Center.
    6. Just, Richard E. & Zilberman, David, 1988. "The effects of agricultural development policies on income distribution and technological change in agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 193-216, March.
    7. Binswanger, Hans P & von Braun, Joachim, 1991. "Technological Change and Commercialization in Agriculture: The Effect on the Poor," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 6(1), pages 57-80, January.
    8. Andrew Schmitz & David Seckler, 1970. "Mechanized Agriculture and Social Welfare: The Case of the Tomato Harvester," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 52(4), pages 569-577.
    9. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong‐Su Yun, 2008. "Poverty In Rural India: Caste And Tribe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(1), pages 50-70, March.
    10. Ashwini Deshpande, 2001. "Caste at Birth? Redefining Disparity in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 130-144, February.
    11. Hayami, Yujiro & Ruttan, V W, 1970. "Factor Prices and Technical Change in Agricultural Development: The United States and Japan, 1880-1960," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(5), pages 1115-1141, Sept.-Oct.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Anjan R. Chaudhury & Madhabendra Sinha, 2022. "Persistence of intergroup occupational disparity in India," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 437-467, December.
    2. Pardey, Philip G. & Alston, Julian M. & Ruttan, Vernon W., 2010. "The Economics of Innovation and Technical Change in Agriculture," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 939-984, Elsevier.
    3. Mehtabul Azam, 2012. "A distributional analysis of social group inequality in rural India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 415-432, May.
    4. Singh, Ashish, 2010. "Inequality of opportunity in India," MPRA Paper 32971, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Hari Bapuji & Snehanjali Chrispal, 2020. "Understanding Economic Inequality Through the Lens of Caste," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 533-551, March.
    6. Tushar Agrawal, 2014. "Gender and caste-based wage discrimination in India: some recent evidence [Geschlecht und Kaste-ansässige Lohndiskriminierung in Indien: Einige Neue Beweise]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 47(4), pages 329-340, December.
    7. Anjan Ray Chaudhury & Madhabendra Sinha, 2020. "Does Education Produce Identical Labour Market Outcomes for All? A Study on India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 14(3), pages 309-331, August.
    8. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2017. "Is Caste Destiny? Occupational Diversification among Dalits in Rural India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 476-492, April.
    9. Florian Becker-Ritterspach & Tico Raaijman, 2013. "Global Transfer and Indian Management," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 141-166, February.
    10. Singh, Ashish, 2010. "Does returns to farming depend on Caste? New evidence from India," MPRA Paper 26526, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Chandan Sharma & Sudharshan Reddy Paramati, 2018. "Measuring Inequality of Opportunity for the Backward Communities: Regional Evidence from the Indian Labour Market," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 479-503, July.
    12. Jayanta Kumar Bora & Rajesh Raushan & Wolfgang Lutz, 2019. "The persistent influence of caste on under-five mortality: Factors that explain the caste-based gap in high focus Indian states," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Bharathi, Naveen & Malghan, Deepak & Rahman, Andaleeb, 2018. "Isolated by Caste: Neighbourhood-Scale Residential Segregation in Indian Metros," SocArXiv 9ynpz, Center for Open Science.
    14. Chhavi Tiwari & Srinivas Goli & Mohammad Zahid Siddiqui & Pradeep S. Salve, 2022. "Poverty, wealth inequality and financial inclusion among castes in Hindu and Muslim communities in Uttar Pradesh, India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1227-1255, August.
    15. Panchanan Das & Sumita Biswas, 2022. "Social Identity, Gender and Unequal Opportunity of Earning in Urban India: 2017–2018 to 2019–2020," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(1), pages 39-57, March.
    16. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Marie‐Hélène Hubert & Beyza Ural Marchand, 2019. "Food for fuel: The effect of the US biofuel mandate on poverty in India," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(3), pages 1153-1193, July.
    17. Arora, Saurabh & Romijn, Henny, 2009. "Innovation for the base of the pyramid: Critical perspectives from development studies on heterogeneity and participation," MERIT Working Papers 2009-036, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "Poverty in Rural India: Ethnicity and Caste," Departmental Working Papers 200634, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    19. Gang, Ira N. & Sen, Kunal & Yun, Myeong-Su, 2002. "Caste, Ethnicity and Poverty in Rural India," IZA Discussion Papers 629, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Arouri, Mohamed & Ben-Youssef, Adel & Nguyen, Cuong Viet, 2019. "Ethnic and racial disparities in children's education: Comparative evidence from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Viet Nam," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 503-514.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Research and Development/ Tech Change/Emerging Technologies;

    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:ags:iaae18:277395. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.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.