Need to create more jobs in farm sector: Ramesh Chand
NEW DELHI : Increasing use of labour-saving technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence in manufacturing warrants creation of more jobs in agriculture and allied sectors, where new opportunities are emerging, according to NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand. The idea of labour transition from agriculture to industry was envisaged in the model of economic growth pioneered by British economist Arthur Lewis but the emerging opportunities for job creation in the evolving agriculture sector needs to be explored given that manufacturing is becoming less labour-intensive with adoption of technology, Chand said in an interview. “That (transition of labour from farm sector to industry) was the earlier model of Arthur Lewis.
Now industry is not labour-intensive. It is capital- and knowledge-intensive. So we have to rethink a model, about how we make agriculture more effective," said Chand.
Successive governments have been trying to step up the share of manufacturing in India’s gross domestic product in order to accelerate economic growth and job creation. The share of manufacturing in GDP is at around 15% now, compared to a goal of 25%. The latest major initiative in this regard is the production linked incentive scheme, which has attracted interest from global companies.
The government has also been reworking the customs duty structure so that global companies are encouraged to manufacture in India to meet both local and global demand. However, extensive use of technology and automation makes the sector more capital-intensive and less labour-intensive. Chand’s suggestion to review the growth model with special attention to the farm sector comes in the context of emerging opportunities like e-commerce in agriculture that
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