Green Jobs and Decent Work: An Agenda for Sustainable Agriculture in India

The paper seeks to explore the opportunities created by climate change and mitigation efforts in agriculture sector in India for creating more, newer and better jobs. These new jobs which are termed as green jobs are not always going to be decent jobs and there is also uncertainty about the number of jobs so created vis-à-vis number of jobs destroyed in traditional fossil fuel based economy. Pivotal role played by agriculture in developing country's economy makes it ideal sector to study in this context. There is growing consensus that organic, sustainable agricultural practices can provide synergistic benefits that include adaptation and mitigation of climate change with addressing concerns like livelihood, employment and working conditions. In an emerging country like India, sustainable agriculture can help in meeting twin challenges of food security and job creation. This so called “Double Dividend” can positively affect the thinking of policy makers and public at large towards contributing to meeting of mitigation and adaption challenge with respect to climate change. However, this requires close integration of agricultural, environmental and labour policy. The present study is based on extensive literature survey and expert interaction. Paper seeks to integrate these varied factors and it is argued that emphasis on sustainable/organic farming will create more and better jobs in India and help in poverty reduction and improving life standards.