Farm to Non-Farm Employment Linkages and Pattern： An Analysis of Village Level Survey in Bangladesh

The widening of rural-urban continuum has accelerated the transformation of Bangladesh agriculture from subsistence toward commercialization. This has accompanied significant employment linkages and patterns in farm and non-farm sector. Modern rice production contributed to employment generation through backward and forward linkages. The field study of three villages measures farm to non-farm employment linkages for two major rice crops. The estimated backward, forward, and total linkages were 0.18, 0.43, and 0.61 for Boro rice and 0.14, 0.39, and 0.53 for Aman rice. For two crops as a whole, farm to non-farm total employment linkage coefficient was 0.58, which meant that total 100 man days of farm employment per hectare in farm production activities generated 58 man days of non-farm employment in various support services, processing, and marketing activities. Employment pattern in different months was more flexible for the farm workers than for non-farm workers. The availability of farm employment in a month varied from five to 25 days for farm workers, and from 22 to 27 days for non-farm workers. The findings imply that more investrnent in rice-based production system significantly increases non-farm employment opportunities. From national policy perspective, more research and development efforts should go into accelerating potential rural growth and non-farm sector development.