Spatial Dimensions in Labour Use and Associated Costs in Karnataka Agriculture — An Economic Analysis

The paper has investigated spatial dimensions in labour-use and its costs by taking three major field crops — paddy, red gram and cotton — under both irrigation as well as rainfed conditions in different agro-ecological regions of Karnataka. The results have highlighted a high proportion of hired human and mechanical labourers in all the cases. This had led to a higher ratio of total labour cost to gross revenue, ranging from 0.35 in paddy to 0.53 in cotton, impinging upon the profit earning capacity of farmers seriously. Multiple linear regression analysis has pointed out that the irrigated paddy farmers incurred more costs as compared to their counterparts in the rainfed region. A positive relationship between total labour cost and holding size has been observed, highlighting the diseconomy of the scale among the crops studied. Mechanization too has not helped to reduce the labour cost in most cases. The study has concluded that the agriculture not only involves high labour cost but also has become high external labour dependent and it is a cause of concern to all associated with Indian agriculture.