Measurement of efficiency loss in Indian agricultural sector due to Covid-19

A large amount of migration of labour from the informal industrial or unorganized sector to the agricultural sector has accelerated the problem of downward pressure in Indian economy during the Covid-19 pandemic situation. If these migrant labourers are bound to be absorbed in the agricultural sector, then not only the amount of surplus labour is aggravated, but the extent of efficiency of agricultural sector may be reduced as well, since these migrant labour would be forced to choose agricultural activities and may not be as efficient as workers who are normally employed in the agricultural sector. This chapter measures the extent of the decline in efficiency in the Indian agricultural sector and the consequent loss of output, arising out of the employment of inefficient labour due to Covid-19 problem and also the extent of the casual labour force that can be dispensed with in order to keep the output level unchanged, taking rice production as a case study and considering the data from 16 major rice-producing Indian states for the period 2004–05 to 2020.