Page 97 - Changing Living Spaces

Living Spaces of Ethnic Groups and their Relationship with the Ecological Environment

far from the urban centre of Guwahati, more and more villagers are look-
ing for white-collar jobs or entrepreneurial activities instead of continu-
ing to work in agriculture, a sector that requires significant input costs
and hard labour. Thus, interest in rice-based subsistence agriculture has
gradually declined among village youth. Given the declining interest in
agriculture, farming activities can no longer be sustained at the previous
level, leading to changes in the use of agricultural land and associated en-
vironmental changes.
Several additional factors have contributed to this trend. The first is
the low rice yield in recent years. In FY 2016, rice yields in Assam aver-
aged 2.1 t/ha, below the national average of 2.6 t/ha and only half that of
the highest-yielding state, Punjab (4.0 t/ha; Government of India 2017).
Along with Bihar and Odisha, rice yields in Assam are among the lowest
in the country. The low yields are related to the predominance of HYVs.
HYVs accounted for 71 percent of total rice production (in terms of area
under cultivation) in FY 2014 and only 66 percent for sali rice, the main
rainy season rice crop (Government of Assam 2016). Without adequate ir-
rigation facilities, HYVs, and chemical fertilisers, rice yields in Assam re-
main much lower than in other Indian states, making it difficult for farm-
ers to earn sufficient income from rice cultivation.
The second factor is unstable weather conditions. Monsoon rainfall is
characterised by large annual fluctuations and has shown an overall de-
creasing trend after 2000 (Jhajharia et al. 2012; Fukushima, Kanamori,
and Matsumoto 2019). When rainfall is low in June and July, the first half
of the rainy season, transplanting work on non-irrigated cropland can-
not be carried out at an appropriate time, severely affecting yields (Asada
2012, 76–8).
The third factor is rising wages for agricultural labour. Rice cultiva-
tion requires wage labour for transplanting and other tasks. However, in
Assam, daily wages of labourers have roughly quadrupled in the last 10
years (from Rs 65 per day in 2006 to Rs 241 per day in 2015). As a result,
landowners are finding it difficult to hire workers to grow rice because the
costs exceed the benefits. In 1991, farm owners accounted for 51 percent
of the total labour force in Assam; however, this number declined to 36
percent in 2011 (Government of Assam 2017). However, during the same
period, the share of agricultural labour in the labour force declined only
slightly from 12 percent to 10 percent. These trends may reflect a situa-
tion where incomes are better for wage labourers than for farmers who
employ labour.

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