Are the Farmer Households Becoming Agricultural Labour Households in India? An Analysis of State-Wise SAS Data

An attempt has been made in this study to find out whether the farmer households are increasingly becoming labour households in India by utilising state-wise SAS data of three-time points: 2002–2003, 2012–2013 and 2018–2019. Four different approaches have been followed to test this assertion. The results from approach I which compared the wage income with the crop cultivation income of the farmer households in absolute term show that the percentage of states having wage income more than cultivation income has increased from 33 percent in 2002–2003 to 75 percent in 2018–2019. Approach II of the analysis, which used the definition of the agricultural labour households of Rural Labour Enquiry, shows that the number of states earning wage income more than 50 percent in the total annual income of farmer households has increased substantially from 22 percent in 2002–2003 to 46 percent in 2018–2019. The results of approach III wherein the growth rate of wage income and crop income has been compared show that the number of states having a growth rate over 2.50 percent in wage income has increased considerably from about 33 percent in period I (2002–2003 to 2012–2013) to about 83 percent in period II (2012–2013 to 2018–2019). Except for Punjab, which registered negative growth in wage income, almost all the agriculturally advanced states have moved from the lower growth bracket in period I to over 2.50 percent growth rate in period II. The analysis of approach IV which has employed regression analysis to find out the impact of wage income vis-à-vis the crop income on the total annual income of the farmer households shows that the coefficients of wage income are higher than that of the crop income in all the three-time points.