Non Farm Sector of Rural India

In recent past years, the economic contribution of agriculture to India’s GDP is continuously declining with the country’s broad-based economic growth. As per the Tenth Agriculture Census, the average size of agriculture landholding declined to 1.08 hectare in 2015-16 from 1.15 hectare in 2010-11. This explains the rise of employment in Non-Farm sector. It is observed that 64 percent of rural employment is in the agriculture sector, while the share of agriculture in rural output is 39 per cent. Hence, reducing the dependence of rural masses on agricultures as a source of income will help improve the overall income of the rural population. This has necessitated the involvement of the rural workers into the dynamic rural non-farm opportunities.