Indian farmers are now predominantly labourers, national survey suggests

Farmer households earned more from wages than from cultivation in 2019, as the latter stagnated

An average farming household in India earned Rs 10,218 per month in 2018-2019, up from Rs 6,426 a month in 2012-2013. This represents a nominal income growth of about 60 per cent over six years. 

However, after adjusting for inflation using the rural consumer price index, farmers’ incomes have grown only 21 per cent in real terms in the period, according to a Business Standard analysis. India’s real gross domestic product (real size of the economy) grew 52 per cent in the same period. 

But more importantly, the growth in income was such that it has probably made the average