Impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Activities on Agriculture as Perceived by Farmers

Abstract

Out of 66.00% of rural population in India, majority are landless labours depending on the mercy of employment providers for their livelihood. This population is the most vulnerable section to poverty, underemployment, access to development, etc. Therefore the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been implemented by the Government of India to improve the living standards of rural poor. This study conducted in Erode district of Tamil Nadu revealed that major impacts of MGNREGA activities on agriculture were in the aspects like soil ecology attributes, water attributes, crop attributes, society attributes, economics attributes, market attributes and labour availability attributes. Majority of the respondents expressed that soil moisture, water percolation, ground water table, area under irrigation, area under cultivation, adoption of crop management technologies, social participation and farm mechanization had increased with improvement in water holding capacity, soil texture, knowledge and skill on crop production due to the activities undertaken under MGNREGA programme.