Consequence of agricultural labour scarcity on cropping pattern in North Eastern Karnataka

India has the second largest man power in the world, all sectors of the economy have been affected by the scarcity of labour, and the impact is being felt more in the field of agricultural sector. Laborers constitute a very fundamental input in agricultural production, but they are migrating to different parts of the country for earning better revenue, adding to the existing threat to the labour shortage. Hence present study analyzed the impact of labour scarcity on the cropping pattern of the selected district of the state. In order to study the cropping pattern shift, secondary data pertaining to area under the crops over the years was collected and analyzed by using Markov Chain analysis. It is interesting to note that, farmers were shifting from high labour intensive crops to low labour intensive crops over the years. Due to higher requirement of laborers for cultivating agricultural crops, farmers are taking interest in cultivating high value horticulture crops than food crops.