The Agrarian Economy: Perceptions Versus Reality

Using evidence from official statistics as well as village studies on incomes from farming across regions, crops, socio-economic classes, and castes, first, I argue that the large majority of cultivators today receive abysmally low incomes and face high variability in incomes. Rising distress can also be inferred from the fact that costs of production have risen faster than government-announced minimum support prices for most crops in most regions of India. Second, I examine the myth of farming in India being highly subsidised, resulting in the overproduction of rice and wheat. I show that subsidies in India are low in comparison to the rest of the world, the European Union and North America, in particular. I also examine projections for different food crops to examine the question of ‘overproduction’. The third issue examined in this article is the invisibility of women workers in agriculture. I argue that women are playing an increasingly significant role in the agricultural economy, a role that official statistics are unable to capture.