Driven by good performance compared to other sectors during the pandemic, agriculture has absorbed an additional 11 million workers over the last three years while the rest of the economy lost 15 million jobs, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said.

According to CMIE’s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey, agriculture saw an estimated 4.5 million increase in employment during fiscal 2021-22. While total employment fell by 21.7 million in the pandemic year of 2020-21, agriculture provided employment to a substantial 3.4 million. In 2019-20 as well agriculture saw an addition of 3.1 million to its count of employed.

This has been possible because of good monsoon, bumper production and higher prices, the CMIE said. “Agricultural prices have remained elevated as well. Farmers have therefore seen the benefits of rising prices for their bumper crops and have also benefited from favourable terms of trade,” CMIE said, adding that this prompted migration of labour to agriculture.

In 2019-20, agriculture grew by 5.5% while the non-agricultural sectors grew by a lower 3.5%. In 2020-21, agriculture grew by 3.3% while the rest of the economy shrunk by 6.3%. In 2021-22, while the rest of the economy recovered from its deep fall, agriculture continued to grow by 3.3%..

This has led to significant improvement in the index of consumer sentiments for farmers compared to other occupation groups, CMIE said. In March 2022, the index of consumer sentiments for farmers was 18.1% higher than it was a year ago. This was even better than the 15.4% increase in the overall index.

Going forward, it is anticipated that India will record the fifth consecutive year of bumper wheat crop supported by increased procurement by the government and the increase in minimum support price.

“The Russia-Ukraine war has raised global prices to a point where they stand at twice their year-ago level. As the war threatens to be prolonged the price is expected to remain elevated, farmer sentiments have several good reasons to continue to remain upbeat,” CMIE added.

Source: The Economic Times.