July 2025

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 jul 2025

Agricultural sector is one of the largest employer in the world with 1/4th of the global population, out of which 37% are women. According to FAO (2020), agriculture contributes 4% to the world's GDP. Agriculture is an essential component of economic development, ensuring food security, inclusive growth and, fostering socio-economic development. Agricultural sector is mired in various challenges particularly related to rural-to-urban migration and feminization of agriculture that are result of unprofitability in farming, changing land-use pattern, rural unemployment, climate change etc. The research study, 'Agriculture driven rural-to-urban migration trends among farmers impacting urban policy development in Northern India' [Authors: Sushmita Saini (ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India and Indian Council of Agriculture Research, New Delhi, India) , Rajarshi Roy Burman (ICAR), Rabindra Nath Padaria (ICAR-IARI), Girijesh Singh Mahra (ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute), Sitaram Bishnoi (ICAR-IARI), Smruti Ranjan Padhan (ICAR-IARI and KVK-East Sikkim, ICAR-Research Complex, Meghalaya, India), Sonali Mallick (ICAR-IARI and ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, West Bengal, India), Sweety Mukherjee (ICAR-IARI)], found that in Northern India migrant farmers demonstrate inter-state migration behavior. The study utilized the traditional constructs of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), developed by Icek Ajzen in the late 1980s offers a comprehensive outline for analyzing and predicting human behavior by considering three primary constructs viz., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Authors extended the TPB framework with two additional constructs: household decision-making and engagement of women in agriculture. The comparison of migration behavior highlights that cities must adopt differentiated policies to address the diverse needs of seasonal (focus on housing, labor rights, and access to social services - short-term policies), forced (targeted interventions for skill-building, and resilience planning to address sudden urban population surges needed - crisis management policies), and voluntary (focus on inclusive urban development, infrastructure expansion, and economic integration to support sustainable urbanization - long-term policies) migrant farmers. The findings of the study can play an important role in fostering more resilient and equitable society through sustainable rural development for human settlements. Read on...

ScienceDirect: Agriculture driven rural-to-urban migration trends among farmers impacting urban policy development in Northern India
Authors: Sushmita Saini, Rajarshi Roy Burman, Rabindra Nath Padaria, Girijesh Singh Mahra, Sitaram Bishnoi, Smruti Ranjan Padhan, Sonali Mallick, Sweety Mukherjee

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