Exploring links between agriculture, natural resources and migration in India

In India the central and state governments spend around US$1 billion per year on programmes to develop catchments, conserve soil and moisture and harvest rainwater. Rural development analysts have traditionally assumed that natural resource management programmes, which provide short-term employment and boost agricultural productivity, will reduce population outflows. But is this the case?

Research from the Overseas Development Institute looks at urban migration patterns in areas of rural India with watershed development programmes (WDPs).

Rural India is in transition from an economy of many small but viable farms to one where  agriculture is changing in response to globalisation, environmental stresses and population pressure. New industries and informal sector jobs in urban areas pull low-skilled labourers to cities but even stronger push factors are apparent – land fragmentation, drought, groundwater scarcity and falling agricultural incomes.

Many WDPs do succeed in reducing migration during implementation phases, especially when they are not implemented by state agencies. However, only in a few intensive non-governmental organisation (NGO)-run projects has migration been halted or reversed. Studies in several states have found a disappointing impact on long-term migration. Projects generally benefit richer farmers and exclude the growing population of landless and marginal farmers.

Conventional assumptions by development economists on the role of migration may no longer be relevant. Remittances have become the major income source for many villages. Several village studies show that earnings from cities now account for a significant proportion of household income. Many ‘rural’ people now lead lives that are impossible to separate from urban influences. However, those who migrate may not be able to afford to invest in agriculture as consumption needs must come first.

Many factors prompt migration:

• Nearly two-thirds of arable land in India is rain-fed and has limited potential.
• Drought – the classic push factor driving migration to cities – is now much worse in western and southern India due to unsustainable exploitation of groundwater resources.
• Declining access to common property resources (CPR) makes it harder for households to remain in agriculture.
• CPR-based livelihoods in poor mountain and forest economies are under threat.
• Globalisation and a reduction in subsidies have led to a decline in prices for tea, rice, groundnuts, rubber and other once-profitable commodities.

The relationship between watershed development (WSD) and migration is complex and can only be understood by analysing the local effects of economic change. By itself, WSD cannot sustain rural livelihoods. Policy-makers need to be aware that:

• Deteriorating circumstances in heavily populated rainfed areas of India are likely to prompt further migration, regardless of success in creating local employment.
• Increases in productivity brought about by WSD will not in themselves manage to reduce out-migration.
• As migration rises, and natural-resource based activities become part-time, communities may not be able to provide labour and other essential inputs to sustain WSD projects.
• Innovative ways of attracting migrant incomes into rural development are needed.

Source(s):
‘Improved livelihoods in improved watersheds in India: can migration be mitigated?’, by Priya Deshingkar, chapter 10, ‘The Earthscan Reader in Rural-Urban Linkages’, edited by Cecilia Tacoli, International Institute for Environment and Development, Earthscan, 2006

id21 Research Highlight: 31 May 2007

Further Information:
Priya Deshingkar
Rural Policy and Governance Group
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JD, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 207 922 0300
Fax: +44 (0) 207 922 0399
Contact the contributor: p.deshingkar@odi.org.uk

Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK

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