Agricultural wages in Bangladesh: What the figures really show?

Abstract

The impact of the ‘green revolution’ on poverty has been the subject of much concern and fears that it leads to impoverishment have affected many people in a position to influence agricultural policy. Real agricultural wages rates have been used as an indicator of poverty, in the absence of more direct measurements. This article starts by examining two recent studies of the trends and regional variations of real agricultural wage rates in Bangladesh both of which argue that agricultural growth has not been favourable to real wage rates. One concludes that there has been an ‘alarming’ downward trend since the mid‐1960s, and the other that the contribution of technological change to labour demand has not been strong. Using more recent information and re‐working the original data it appears that these conclusions cannot be supported.