Impact of New Technology, Agricultural Growth, Employment and Poverty: A Study in Odisha

Agriculture is an important source of income and employment for the households in Karanjadia and Khadikapada villages of Bhadrak and Balasore districts, respectively in Odisha. The adoption of new technology has brought about dynamism in the local economy in these areas. This paper has studied the impact of agricultural growth on the distribution of farm income, employment, wage and reduction of poverty. The study pertains to both kharif and rabi seasons of the agricultural year 2001–12 and the data were collected through survey of 108 sample households in two Odisha villages — one technologically developed and the other technologically less developed. The study has revealed that the average from income on overall basis was much higher on the farms in the technologically-developed village ( 59347) than in technologically less-developed village ( 17680). In terms of incidence of poverty, the study has observed that there were only 13 per cent households below the poverty line in the technologically-developed, whereas BPL households were 74 per cent in the less-developed village. It has also been revealed that large-scale adoption of new technology had led to a skewed distribution of farm income, whereby the incomes of large and medium farming households scaled up more than those of small and marginal farming households contributing to more farm employment, higher wages, and considerable reduction in rural poverty in the state.