Labor Scarcity and Technology Adoption in Agriculture: Evidence from Rural India during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kenichi Kuroiwa, Prakashan Chellattan Veettil and Ishika Gupta

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2026, vol. 75, issue 1, 179 - 213

Abstract: This study examines how rice farmers adjust production technology because of negative migrant labor supply shocks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using village-, household-, and plot-level data in rural India, we find that farmers adopt direct seeding of rice (DSR), a labor-saving method, in response to migrant labor scarcity, and that the average profit from DSR is almost the same as that from transplanting rice during the pandemic. We also find that downside risk tends to be higher for the DSR plots due to yield losses caused by weed infestation, and we find suggestive evidence of limited information acquisition about DSR. Our findings highlight the importance of information provision about DSR to improve rice farmers’ adaptive capacity during labor scarcity.

Date: 2026
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