Impact of MGNREGA on Availability of Labourers for Paddy Cultviation in Katni District of Madhya Pradesh

The paper has studied the availability of agricultural labourers during major agricultural operations in paddy cultivation after the implementation of MGNREGA in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh. The impact on wages of agricultural labourers has been studied along with the effect on crop production due to non-availability of labourers. The study is based on the data collected from 90 farmers for the year 2010. The data have shown that because of employment of a large number of matured agricultural labourers under MGNREGA works, farmers had to engage unexperienced labourers. As a result, the labour days for different operations had increased and consequently human labour cost had become almost double in paddy cultivation.