Asset Creation through NREGP on Private Land and its Impact on Net Farm Income of the Marginal Farmers

Asset creation through National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) can be carried out both in public as well as in private land. This paper on the basis of micro level field investigation in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India has tried to investigate whether asset creation through NREGP in private land can play a positive role of the benefitted marginal farmer households to enhance their net farm income. The field investigation was done into two purposefully chosen gram panchayats of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Using Heckman’s treatment effect model, we have proved total absence of sample selection bias of our investigation. With the help of First differenced method, it is observed that enhancement of per bigha net farm income is comparatively more among the marginal farm households of our sample gram panchayats who enjoyed the benefit of NREGP work in their private land.