EMPLOYMENT IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE 5 agricultural sector is relatively small. Typically also, the output structure shifts first, and the occupational structure follows with a time lag. The Indian experience is revealed by the time series data in Tables 1 and 2. What we see in the first table is the impact of output growth rates in the non-agricultural sector far in excess of agricultural output growth rates. But since the rate of growth of non-agricultural output is normally at least twice as large as the rate of growth of non-agricultural employment, even high rates of non-farm output growth failed to provide the required non-agricultural employment opportunities. Thus the absolute numbers engaged in agriculture continued to rise, in some regions at rates substantially above the rates of output growth in agriculture, with the result that labour productivity actually declined in these regions. (For details see Table 9.) The failure o.f the non-farm sector to provide additional jobs on a larger scale would not have been so serious, had there been plenty of room to expand net sown area in the agricultural sector. But unfortunately for India's farm employment growth prospects, the possibilities of extending the area under cultivation declined rapidly after 1956. Figures are given in Table 3. While in principle it is quite possible for the extension of double cropping to compensate for the dwindling possibilities of extending net sown area, in India this did not happen. Irrigation could not be extended fast enough. Thus the country gradually lost what had been the^main source of its farm output and employment growth up until about 1965-66. Indian agriculture was thrown back on yield increases and the extension of double cropping as the major potential sources of employment growth. Cropping pattern shifts in favour of relatively more labour intensive crops emerged as a poor third in terms of its positive impact on employment growth in India as a whole.3 The limited opportunities for non-farm employment, together with the marked deceleration in the extension of net sown area, was reflected in the gradual worsening of land-man ratios, and the proliferation of sub-marginal uneconomic holdings. (See Tables 4 and 5.) As is evident from comparison of the figures at the bottom of Table 5 for ownership and operational holdings, a large proportion of small owners do not find it worthwhile to cultivate their owned holdings. There are far fewer households operating small holdings then the number who own small holdings. As of 1981 according to the NSS4 most of the area leased out is accounted for either by agricultural labourer households (19.39 per cent at the all-India level) or by the category 'others' (46.26 per cent, again at the all-India, all size classes level). 'Others' constitutes a category which includes households self-employed in non-agricultural occupations, labour households having wage paid non-manual employment, and all other households.