Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

additional amounts will have to be realized from the product, which would again imply
that prices will have to remain high. Decline in fertility and decline in prices would mean
that paddy cultivation will not be cost- effective.
Another complaint raised by the farmers was that of the high wages of agricultural labor.
The traditional farmers remembered that labor was ready at hand for the all the stages of
agricultural operation, and the wages were very low. After the land reforms majority of
the laborers received eight to ten cents of land as settlers in the lands. In some areas, like
Pootheri valappu in Chelari, numerous families of laborers came and settled as apart of
the land grab agitation. WE have already seen that laborers were either at subsistence or
below subsistence levels in meeting their livelihood needs, but the land reforms changed
all that. Land reforms did not give the laborers lands for cultivation, but only gave them
their habitat, which meant that their livelihood remained an open issue. These laborers
had to survive in a domain of rising prices, rising costs of living, creation of new needs
like education, health care, household needs, new tastes and so on, for which they needed
money. The rising standards of living, better bargaining abilities of the agricultural labor
movement, and the increasing demand for labor due to the intensification of cultivation
resulted in forcing up the wages also. As the number of schools increased, child labor,
which was employed on a large scale, declined and some of the labor power never came
back as agricultural labor as it was diverted to non-agricultural labor or as services.
Moreover, the living standard of the landowners themselves increased, and as a result,
household labor of the landowner was never employed in agriculture. All this resulted
further hiking the wages of agricultural labor. It is not surprising that agriculturists with
small holdings were forced to invest more in land and in labor and were also forced to
depend on the uncertainties of the market to acquire profit. However, it should also be
added that, for those farmers who did not think that agriculture should be undertaken
purely for profit alone and are willing to employ their household labor has had no