{"id":43063,"date":"2024-10-21T02:08:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T20:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=43063"},"modified":"2025-10-14T12:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:42:44","slug":"rising-dependence-on-agriculture-for-livelihoods-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rising-dependence-on-agriculture-for-livelihoods-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Dependence on Agriculture for Livelihoods in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>Growing Agricultural Households in India<\/li>\n<li>How the COVID-19 Impacted this Trend of Rising Agricultural Households and Income?<\/li>\n<li>Rising Agricultural Dependency Amid Economic Growth<\/li>\n<li>Way Ahead to Address the Rising Dependence on Agriculture for Livelihoods in India<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The landscape of rural India is undergoing a significant transformation, as indicated by the recent All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey for 2021-22.<\/li>\n<li>This survey (commissioned by NABARD) reveals a noteworthy increase in the proportion of rural households reliant on agriculture for their livelihoods, signifying a break from a decades-long pattern of dwindling rural agricultural links.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Growing Agricultural Households in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Statistical insights:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the survey, <strong>57% of rural households were classified as &#8220;agricultural&#8221; in 2021-22<\/strong>, a considerable rise from 48% in 2016-17.<\/li>\n<li>The survey defines <strong>an agricultural household<\/strong> as one that produces crops or livestock worth more than Rs 6,500 (Rs 5,000 in the earlier survey) and has at least one member engaged in self-employment in agricultural activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Income comparison:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The average monthly income for agricultural households stood at <strong>Rs 13,661 in 2021-22<\/strong>, surpassing the Rs 11,438 for non-agricultural rural households.<\/li>\n<li>Notably, agricultural households have seen their income from farming rise to over 45% of their total income, an increase from 43.1% in 2016-17.<\/li>\n<li><strong>This trend spans across various land sizes, illustrating a broad-based rise in agricultural income.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>How the COVID-19 Impacted this Trend of Rising Agricultural Households and Income?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lockdown effects:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The survey period coincided with the aftermath of <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\">COVID-19<\/a> lockdowns, which significantly impacted economic activities across sectors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Agriculture was exempt from many restrictions<\/strong>, potentially leading to an overestimation of its share in rural livelihoods.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The favourable monsoon seasons from 2019<\/strong> further supported agricultural productivity, suggesting a complex interplay between external factors and survey results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Labour force dynamics:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the National Sample Survey Office\u2019s (NSSO) Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS), agriculture engaged 64.6% of the country\u2019s workforce in 1993-94.<\/li>\n<li>That share fell to 58.5% in 2004-05, 48.9% in 2011-12, and a low of 42.5% in 2018-19.<\/li>\n<li>However, post-2019, <strong>the farm sector\u2019s share of the employed labour force rebounded<\/strong>, with figures rising to 45.6% and 46.5% in the pandemic years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Rising Agricultural Dependency Amid Economic Growth:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The paradox:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite the Indian economy experiencing robust growth, with an annual GDP increase of 8.3% in recent years, agricultural dependency has persisted.<\/li>\n<li>The proportion of the rural workforce engaged in agriculture rose from 57.8% in 2018-19 to 59.8% in 2023-24.<\/li>\n<li>This trend presents a paradox: <strong>why is a growing economy relying more on agriculture?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Structural employment issues:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>This paradox can be partly explained by the <strong>stagnation in manufacturing employment<\/strong>, which accounted for only 11.4% of the workforce in 2023-24, down from previous years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The movement of surplus labour<\/strong> does not appear to be transitioning from agriculture to manufacturing; instead, <strong>it is shifting to informal sectors<\/strong> with similar low productivity and wage characteristics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regional disparities in agricultural employment:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the PLFS data for 2023-24, States like Chhattisgarh (63.8%), MP (61.6%), and UP (55.9%) have high agricultural workforce shares, while states like Goa (8.1%) and Kerala (27%) exhibit much lower dependence on agriculture.<\/li>\n<li><strong>These variations highlight regional economic conditions and the effectiveness of rural development initiatives.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Way Ahead to Address the Rising Dependence on Agriculture for Livelihoods in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The rising dependence on agriculture for livelihoods in India <strong>necessitates a thorough examination of underlying causes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>As the economy grows, the challenge remains to <strong>create sustainable employment opportunities outside of agriculture.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Policymakers need to focus on <strong>strengthening the agricultural sector while simultaneously promoting diversification into higher productivity sectors<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Understanding this paradox is crucial for <strong>crafting effective strategies<\/strong> that ensure balanced economic growth and improved livelihoods in rural India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q.1. What is the All-India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The NAFIS is a survey conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to assess the financial inclusion and livelihoods of rural households in India. Its 1st edition (NAFIS 2016-17) was released in 2018, while its 2nd edition (NAFIS 2021-22) was recently released.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q.2. What is Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The PLFS is a survey conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to measure the employment and unemployment situation in India.<\/p>\n<p><strong>News: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/comeback-of-krishi-in-bharat-9630485\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Comeback of krishi in Bharat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey for 2021-22 reveals a noteworthy increase in the proportion of rural households reliant on agriculture for their livelihoods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","7":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}