Non Farm Economy

947 Words4 Pages
Rural Non-Farm Economy and its Dimensions Before discussing the features, importance, potential, scope and other dimensions of the Rural Non Farm Economy (RNFE), it would be desirable to outreach the meaning of RNFE as evidenced in array of literature. Lanjouw & Lanjouw (1995) defined the rural non farm sector as incorporating all economic activities in rural areas, except agriculture, livestock, fishing and hunting. Hossain (2004) classified RNFE in three categories ; (a) Manual based activities, such as self-employment in cottage industries, mechanics, wage employment in rural business enterprises, transport operations, and construction based (b) Human capital based occupations, such as salaried service in public and private sector institutions,…show more content…
Economic Census (2005) has identified 17 non-farm activities including mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, water supply, construction, maintenance and repair, wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport and storage, financial intermediation, health and social work etc. The rural non-farm employment includes both non-farm wage employment and non-farm self employment (excluding agricultural wage employment) and it connotes a highly diverse collection of activities-including trading, agro-processing, manufacturing, construction and commercial and service activities. Mahajan & Gupta (2011) have put-agro food processing, dairy and poultry, handicraft, non-traditional rural enterprises, warehousing and transport, wholesale and retail trading, business services, social services and recreational…show more content…
NSSO data reveal that a large section of villagers has moved away from farm jobs over the past two decades and the share of farm workers in the rural workforce declined from 77% in 1993-94 to 73% in 2004-05, and further declined to 64% in 2011-12. The growth in non-farm jobs accelerated between 2004-05 and 2011-12 largely because of a massive construction boom, which generated new jobs for unskilled labourers. The National Sample Survey (NSS) 68th round (2011-12) shows a diversity of employment in rural areas: 64% of the rural workforce is engaged in agriculture and allied activities (usual status of employment), but 50% of the total manufacturing employment and 44% of the total services employment in the country is in rural areas (Sidhwani, 2014). Chatterjee et al (2015) found in their study that during 1993-94 to 2004-05, rural non-farm employment grew about four times faster than farm employment and since 2004-05, diversification to the non-farm sector picked up the pace alongside rapid decline in poverty during 2004-05 to 2011-12
Open Document