Labor Availability, Agricultural Technology Use and Contraceptive Attitudes in Nepal

Prem Bahadur Bhandari, Pennsylvania State University
Sundar S. Shrestha, Pennsylvania State University

We investigated two research questions: (i) does the availability of family labor influence the use of agricultural technologies?, and (ii) to what extent does the use of technologies differentially shape individual attitudes toward contraceptive use? We used 1996 household and individual level data from the western Chitwan Valley of Nepal. The results showed that (i) the family labor availability strongly and negatively contributed to the use of agricultural technologies; (ii) individuals from technology using households were significantly more likely to approve of contraceptive use to delay or avoid pregnancy. These findings indicate an important link between contraception and agricultural technology use in Nepal, thus, providing a basis for integrating population and agriculture development policies.