Coping with the Supply-Demand Gap of Agricultural Labourers: A Case Study of Uttar Dinajpur District of West Bengal^§

The present paper has analyzed the mechanism by which farmers try to cope with the supply-demand gap of agricultural labourers during busy agricultural seasons in the face of growing shortage of agricultural labourers. The traditional mechanism of patron-client relationship between farmers and agricultural labourers has been dealt with in this regard. In this paper an attempt has been made to find answer to the following questions: What is the degree of attachment of the agricultural labourers with the employer? Is there any patron-client relationship between the employer and the employee? How effective is this relationship as a coping mechanism to mitigate the problem of supply-demand gap of agricultural labourers? The paper is based on a micro level study conducted in six villages of Uttar Dinajpur district, a predominantly agricultural and backward district of West Bengal. The study has suggested that to cope with the situation of supply-demand gap of farm labour, there is no other alternative but to adopt selective mechanization of farm activities. Some degree of mechanization is already there which is visibly on the rise. In future, there will be more inducement to undertake mechanical innovation to tackle the growing supply-demand gap in the farm labour.