Labour migration and livelihood analysis in rainfed rice based farming systems of coastal Odisha

Data collected from 193 farmers of coastal Odisha were analysed to find out the extent of migration, sources of employment and income. It is revealed from the analysis that out of the total male labour employment, 62 per cent were employed in non-farm and 32 per cent in on-farm work. Females were much less employed than male workers. There is widespread unemployment prevalent in coastal Odisha, as only 55 per cent of the days in a
year, the male workers got employment. It was found that maximum number of people had migrated to places out of state followed by out of district and out of village. Remittances accounted for 25 per cent of total family income of all farmers followed by other non-farm activities and income from rice. The remittance was highest from the workers those who had migrated to out of state followed by out of district, out of village and out of country. Four sources of income like remittances, salaried job, other non-farm activities and rice were found to contribute more than 95 per cent of the income inequalities.