Submitted by Aprajit Mahajan on
Machine-harvestable chickpea (MHCP) varieties are an innovative agricultural technology that increase farmer profits by reducing harvesting costs and post-harvest yield losses. An important concern with this technology is its effect on local labor markets, particularly for women who perform the vast majority of harvest labor for chickpeas in the study area. This project is aimed to study the impact of this technology on female labor supply and female economic agency.
Machine-harvestable chickpea (MHCP) varieties have been recently developed in India spurred by farmer demand stemming from rising harvest labor costs (see e.g. Bhargava, 2014).Traditional varieties are unsuitable for machine harvesting whereas the recently developed varieties are specifically designed to be machine harvestable. Since yields are, arguably, comparable to those from traditional cultivars, there appears to be no yield trade-off from adopting MHCP. Using MHCP drastically reduces harvesting time (the harvester can harvest 10 hectare/day while manual harvesting covers approximately 0.4 ha hectares/day) as well as the post-harvest grain loss. Combining these gains (with the comparable yields) MHCP varieties should reduce farming costs (by reducing expensive harvestlabor use) and increase revenues (by minimizing post-harvest losses) so as to increase overall productivity.
Traditionally, chickpeas are harvested manually in India, overwhelmingly by women -- both because of the abundance of relatively cheap harvest labor as well as the unsuitability of the traditional chickpea varieties for machine harvesting. Increasing labor costs have, however, placed pressure on farmers to seek out alternative technologies and the MHCP variety is one such alternative.
It can be assumed that farmers will switch from using female labor at harvest to combine harvesters for MHCP. This has important implications for female labor supply and female welfare more generally. First, it is not clear whether and to what extent the displaced female harvest labor will be absorbed in other economic activities. Second, female economic agency (particularly for economically vulnerable households who provide the bulk of female harvest labor) may also suffer as a consequence of the decrease in harvest labor demand.
In order to understand these trends, we conducted comprehensive labor market surveys in the treatment and control areas to measure female labor force participation and female economic agency..
The project has two aims: First, to provide experimental evidence on the effect of technology adoption on female labor force participation and economic agency. Second, attempting to identify the factors influencing labor supply decisions for women who have been displaced from harvest labor.
The general function and responsibilities of the position include:
- conduct background research and literature reviews.
- clean and manage datasets.
- conduct statistical analyses.
The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:
- Computer skills including experience with statistical software such as Python, R, and/or Stata
- Strong quantitative background.
- Strong motivation, self-direction, and organizational skills.
- Background in economics is a plus, but not necessary. (Candidates with strong technical backgrounds who are looking for more exposure to economics are welcomed.)