When agricultural growth plateaus in an economy, it becomes essential to develop the non-farm sector and generate employment. The economies that based the growth and development of their industrial and service sectors on their agricultural sector shifted their surplus agricultural labour to these sectors. In India, however, the migration of the rural workforce to urbanized, non-farm employment has taken place at a snail's pace, as the organized urban sector's capacity to absorb the unskilled labour released from the agricultural sector has proven limited, and labour migration has led many slums to develop in the urban fringes. Punjab, the Indian state known as the food bowl of India after the green revolution, recorded tremendous agricultural growth in the 1970s and 1980s, but its non-agriculture sector has not expanded. A significant portion of rural labour force engages in nonagricultural activities, but the rural non-farm sector needs more enhancements, as high mechanization and economic unavailability is shrinking the state's agricultural workforce rapidly. To diversify its economy, Punjab should provide its women equal employment opportunities and create non-farm employment opportunities.
