THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 11 August 2007 — Migration of labor to the Gulf countries, coupled with the recent spurt in hospitality industry and real estate, are taking its toll on agriculture in Kerala.
In nine of Kerala’s 14 districts, the agricultural output has slipped sharply between 2000 and 2005, according to the State Planning Board.
Kasargod, Kollam, Thrissur and Alappuzha districts figure among India’s worst performing districts in terms of agricultural output growth and Kasargod is losing productivity at a rate of 10.8 percent per annum, the highest for any district in India.
According to a study, sustained loss in agricultural output in Kerala is not due to natural causes but is the result of a curious mix of socioeconomic factors such as the rise in attractive alternative opportunities.
Migration of productive labor to the Gulf countries tops them all. A booming Rs.90 billion tourism industry, which is growing at a rate of over 10 percent, and a surge in construction fired by both tourism and overseas remittances, has also played key roles in diverting labor from agriculture to other sectors.
The fallout of this phenomenon is the chronic shortage of labor in the agricultural sector with workers being brought in from other states, mainly from Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal. Though Tamil Nadu still dominates Kerala’s migrant labor market, its hold is slowly waning thanks to massive industrial investments happening in Tamil Nadu.
At least 115,000 migrant workers from other states are engaged in various sectors in the state but unofficial estimates are almost double than this. Though the exact number of migrant laborers in farming and nonfarming sectors are yet to be ascertained, the majority of them are in the booming construction and plantation sector.
Good wages and better working conditions attract large-scale migration to the state. The daily wage of a rural laborer in Kerala is pegged at Rs.185 in 2001 while in the Marxist-ruled West Bengal, it is Rs.71 and in Tripura, the other “red fort”, the laborers are paid only Rs.55 a day. In Madhya Pradesh, it is as low as Rs.47 a day, according to the Center for Development Studies here.
The trend has also made labor costly for the agriculture sector, already reeling under crisis because of the Left-dominated state’s resistance to large-scale mechanization and modernization.
While plantation owners and cash crop cultivators can afford the luxury of labor from other states and high wages, nonremunerative crops like rice have been the most affected due to the labor shortage.
According to official figures, out of a total geographical area of 3.885 million hectare, net sown area in Kerala is about 55 percent. Forest occupies around 28 percent and agriculture and forest sectors together account for over 83 percent of the land area. Net sown area is declining over the period. Land under nonagricultural uses was 9.10 percent in 1999-2000, which increased to 11.67 percent in 2005-06.
Paddy is the worst hit all over the state with paddy fields being converted into houses and other buildings. While land under cultivation has reduced, labor productivity remained among the best in the country indicating that the sustained loss in output is chiefly due to a reduction in area under cultivation and labor shortages and not environmental factors.
Food crops (rice, pulses, minor millets and tapioca) occupy only 12.5 percent, forcing the state to depend heavily on arrivals from other states. Kerala agricultural economy has been undergoing structural transformation from the mid-seventies by switching over a large proportion of its traditional crop area that was devoted to subsistence crops like rice and tapioca to more remunerative crops like coconut and rubber.
The area under rice cultivation has declined from 2,90,000 ha in 2004-05 to 2,76,000 ha in 2005-06. The area under commercial crops in general and rubber in particular has increased considerably during the last two decades. But the trend seems to have slowed down recently.
During the Ninth Plan (1997-02), average annual increase in area under rubber was 1,951 ha while during 2005-06, it increased by 13,339 ha compared to previous year and the increase was mainly due to upsurge in prices.
The index of food grain production has declined by 3.57 points and nonfood grains increased slightly while index of area of food grains declined by 2.77 points and productivity declined by 0.62. However, nonfood grains and plantation crops showed slight improvement during the year, 13.07 points.
According to the Planning Board, 125,000 workers from the state went abroad in search of job in 2005, constituting 22.8 percent of the 549,000 emigrants from India. Emigrants from Tamil Nadu constituted 21.3 percent followed by other southern neighbors Karnataka (13.7) and Andhra Pradesh (8.8 percent).
The remittances in the state’s banks from abroad also marked a gradual increase in deposit mobilization. As on march 2006, the deposits from the overseas workers consisted of Rs.306.71 billion out of a total deposit of Rs.776.77 billion in Kerala while the state’s economic growth witnessed a slight downtrend.
The tertiary sector (trade, services) contributed 60.5 percent in 2005-06 as against the primary (agriculture, fisheries) sector’s 15.7 percent and secondary (manufacturing, construction) sector’s 23.8 percent. This trend is also attributed to the overseas remittances and growth in tourism industry.
The regular and substantial inflow of remittances that boost such a demand, gives the service sector a preponderant position, which accounts for its greater importance than in the national economy as a whole.
The remittances from Kerala workers are estimated at 1.74 times the revenue receipts of the state and 1.8 times the annual expenditure of the Kerala Government. It contributes 22 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the state.
