Many factors why farmers don’t adopt non-farming jobs: IIT-M study

CHENNAI: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have identified barriers that prevent rural communities from entering non-farming occupations.

The team studied several problems associated with the Indian rural economy, especially analysing reasons farmers don’t adopt non-farming jobs even when agriculture does not provide them with a reliable means of sustenance, a release from the institute said on Thursday.

Researchers found lack of education and skill, credit constraint and poor access to social capital as predominant entry barriers into the non-farming sector. They also showed that farm income and land assets have a negative influence on diversification, and household size has a positive impact on the participation of the rural community in non-farming activities.

They called for regional rural banks to allow micro-financing, and composite finance services to remove financial barriers to rural job diversification.

The study shows that increasing the flow of information via access to telecommunication devices such as mobile phones can enhance awareness about the benefits of non-farming occupations among the rural community, thereby enabling participation.

The farm sector has suffered from a low growth rate in recent years. According to the 10th Agricultural Census, the average size of agricultural landholding declined to 1.08 hectares in 2015-16 from 1.15 hectares in 2010-11. This retrograde has been a result of weather vagaries, land fragmentation, price fluctuations, soil erosion, waterlogging, and rapid population growth.

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