The Negative Impacts of Migration on Agricultural Production

Abstract

Agriculture is a main source of economic and food security in low- and middle-income countries and there is a growing trend of migration from rural to urban areas and towards developed countries. Migration causes a loss of agricultural productivity due to many factors in which the main is shortage of agricultural workers in rural areas. Other factors including improper usage of fertilizers for better growth and production of crops, Households with more migrants have difficulties in dealing with harsh weather to get more agricultural yield. Those regions which have higher rate of male migration have problem to hire manpower for agricultural work. Then women are playing these roles properly, but they receive discrimination because many people believe that these works are specified for men. This discriminate behaviour leads to the potential for less agriculture production. Migration also causes diseases to spread in crops, humans and animals. Crop and animal diseases led to reduction in agricultural production and human disease cause reduction in farm workers. This labor shortage causes difficulty in crop management like planting, weeding and harvesting. It also causes a rise in salaries of agricultural workers which increases the cost of growing crops and less profit from agricultural production.