India's Farmer Population Down by 9 Mn in a Decade

The progress of the last fifty years has seen a declining proportion of the total population to the total number of farmers.

With over a hundred and forty four million laborers in the field of agriculture today, there has been some increase in the proportion of agricultural labor. While compared to 2001 when agricultural laborers made up for 26.5 percent of the total working population, there has been some increase where they now stand at 30 percent.

Census commissioner C Chandramouli said "The rise in agricultural labour could be explained by the falling size of land holdings over time," as reported by TOI.

Over two hundred and sixty three million workers are found to belong to the agricultural sector thus making up half of the total number of workers, while a decade ago it was two hundred and thirty four million. This shows an absolute increase in number in spite of a decline in percentage.