Impact of Out-Migration on Agriculture and Women Work Load: An Economic Analysis of Hilly Regions of Uttarakhand India

Agriculture is intimately connected with migration and at the primary instance out-migration simply aggravates the problem of agriculture. But migration and remittances can also foster household farm investment and agricultural production. Besides agriculture, male out-migration has a bearing on farm women also due to transfer of responsibilities. The present study has assessed the impact of out-migration on agriculture and workload of women. Primary data were collected from 90 migrant and 60 non-migrant member households in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. Regression, conventional economic and tabular analyses were used to analyse the data. None of the migrant households made any attempt to create productive assets on the farm through remittances, though they spent some amount for hiring labour and for purchasing material inputs and cattle feed. In migrant member households a larger percentage of land was kept fallow and the number of livestock was also lower. The magnitude of workload of farm women was more in the case of migrant member households than in non-migrant households due to additional burden of non-households and non-farm works in the absence of male members (migrants).