Number of farmers in India overstated: Survey

NEW DELHI: India's Chief Statistician Pronab Sen on Monday said the country has far less number of farm households than what the official records, based on NSSO surveys, reveal. "Number of people depending on agriculture is being overstated," he said while addressing a conference on 'Productivity Growth in a Globalising Economy: Implications for Business and Policy', organised by think tank ICRIER in Delhi. Sen attributed the discrepancy to survey methodology and reporting problems. The NSSO data suggests that almost 50 per cent of the income in rural areas is coming from non-agriculture sources, Sen said, adding that "it means that half of the agriculture households are engaged in non-agriculture activities." There is also a problem of reporting, he said, as people living in rural areas claim themselves to be farmers though they earn a large portion of their income from non-agriculture activities. As a result, Sen added, even non-farmers are being counted as farmers in official records. Sen's assertion assumes significance in view of the ongoing debate to move people from agriculture to other sectors of the economy. Commenting on deceleration of manufacturing and acceleration of services sector, Sen said economic analysts should keep in mind the fact that several manufacturing companies have started outsourcing activities, which they used to do themselves. Shedding of various activities by corporates, he said, is responsible for high growth of services, and that need not necessarily be construed as slowdown of manufacturing.