A Study on the Impact of Climate Change on the Productivity and Women Employment in Coffee and Tea Plantations in India

Whilst climate change is one among the many external factors which affects the crop production in general, it must also be acknowledged that the recent studies on climate change indicate that among all the external factors it surely is a factor which cannot be ignored due to its prominent effect on the crop yield. One of the many sub sectors within agriculture which is directly affected by changing climate which also forms the backbone of agriculture sector in India is the plantation sector. Among the many crops in the sector, coffee and tea are highly export oriented crops and also labour intensive crops. The growth of this sector has significant linkages to other sectors as well. One of the linkages would be increased living standards through employment generation. The plantation sector employs more than 2 million workers in the country. And out of the total labour employed, 54 percent comprise of women. This paper analyses two objectives- firstly studies the relation between climate change and yield, secondly it studies the relation between yield and women employment in the sector. The time frame considered for the study is 1970 to 2014, while for labour and yield 1995 to 2011 is considered. Ordinary Least Square regression is used to study the relation. The results show temperature affects both tea and coffee yield. This in turn has an effect on the employment of women in tea and coffee plantations.