Economics of Production of Sugarcane in Orissa
As can be seen from the table that the size of family per farm increased less
than proportionately with the increase in the size of holding. In region-I on an average,
the family size worked out to 5.62, 7.81, 8.01 and 8.44 for marginal, small, medium
and large farmers respectively. On the other hand in region-II, the average size of
the family is worked out to 5.71, 6.92, 7.57 and 7.92 for the above respective farms.
The average number of family members per farm are 7.47 and 6.75 for region-I and
region-II respectively.
Family Labour
Family labour constitutes the major proportion of total labour utilized in agricultural
operations of the farm. Table 4 shows the variation in number of family labourers
available for farm work in different size groups of farms.
Table 4 : Distribution of family labour in different size groups of
sample farms
Total no.
No. of agril.
Percentage of
No. of
No. of
Block
Size
agril. Earners
earners in
groups
of earners/
Earners/
earners
farm
farm
to total
agril. Per
earners
per ha.
ha.
I
1.92
1.58
82.13
2.21
1.98
II
3.01
2.35
78.16
2.01
1.76
III
3.73
2.87
76.98
1.62
1.43
IV
3.87
2.88
74.52
1.41
1.29
Pooled
3.09
2.40
78.18
1.86
1.65
I
2.21
1.82
82.35
2.62
2.12
II
3.12
2.38
76.28
2.33
1.96
III
3.78
2.91
76.98
1.98
1.78
IV
3.91
2.99
76.47
1.67
1.57
Pooled
3.04
2.37
78.44
2.30
1.94
Table 4 has revealed that more of family labour was available for agriculture
work in the lower size group as compared to higher size group. In region-I the
average number of family labour available for agricultural operations in different
categories of farm sizes were 1.58, 2.35, 2.87 and 2.88 in the marginal, small, medium
and large farms respectively. The magnitude in region-II were 1.82, 2.38, 2.91 and
2.99 respectively. This shows that the number of dependents in agriculture was
more in marginal and small size farms than medium and large size farms. This
meant that a substantial proportion of earners in large farm categories were engaged
in non-agricultural pursuits. The marginal and small farms have no other alternatives
but to depend upon agricultural occupation.
65