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Abstract
Agriculture is intimately connected with migration and at the primary instance out-migration simply
aggravates the problem of agriculture. But migration and remittances can also foster household farm
investment and agricultural production. Besides agriculture, male out-migration has a bearing on farm
women also due to transfer of responsibilities. The present study has assessed the impact of out-migration
on agriculture and workload of women. Primary data were collected from 90 migrant and 60 non-migrant
member households in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. Regression, conventional economic and tabular
analyses were used to analyse the data. None of the migrant households made any attempt to create
productive assets on the farm through remittances, though they spent some amount for hiring labour and
for purchasing material inputs and cattle feed. In migrant member households a larger percentage of land
was kept fallow and the number of livestock was also lower. The magnitude of workload of farm women
was more in the case of migrant member households than in non-migrant households due to additional
burden of non-households and non-farm works in the absence of male members (migrants).