Farm productivity and rural poverty in India

Gaurav Datt, Martin Ravallion

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199 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Armed with new data, we return to an old question from the pages of this journal: to what extent do India's rural poor share in agricultural growth? Combining data from 24 household sample surveys spanning 35 years with other sources, we estimate a model of the joint determination of consumption-poverty measures, agricultural wages, and food prices. We find that higher farm productivity brought both absolute and relative gains to poor rural households. A large share of the gains was via wages and prices, though these effects took time. The benefits to the poor were not confined to those near the poverty line.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)62-85
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Development Studies
Volume34
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 1998
Externally publishedYes

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