This study examines how rainfall shocks, which affect demand for labour in Indian agriculture, alter wage gaps between men and women in the agriculture sector. It uses district-level panel data based on national sample survey data for India from 1993 to 2007. Overall, it was found that such shocks do not affect the wage gaps, but in the rainfed rice-growing regions of India, low rainfall years widen gender wage gaps, with women farmers suffering a greater loss in their wages as compared to their male counterparts. The report highlights that the cultivation of rice is highly sensitive to rainfall variability under rainfed conditions. Women workers are heavily concentrated in the cultivation of crops, such as rice, that are severely affected by rainfall variability, making them more vulnerable to labour market losses during bad rainfall years. In other words, the effect of rainfall shocks on gender wage gaps in agriculture depends upon the gender roles underlying the technology of production in agriculture, which varies across cropping systems.

Publication date
Type of publication
Document
Objective
Adaptation
Collection
Eldis
Sectors
Agriculture and forestry
CTCN Keyword Matches
Runoff control structures to temporarily store rainfall
Gender
India
Rice cultivation
Improved cultivation techniques
Agriculture