India’s Farm Economy Growth at 4.42% surpassing China’s 4.10%

• No negative agricultural income growth recorded between 2015–16 and 2024–25

• Average farm sector growth of 4.42%, surpassing China and global trends

• Farmers’ incomes more than doubled over a decade, outpacing manufacturing

• Agriculture proved resilient during Covid and climate uncertainties

• Sector underpins “Viksit Bharat 2047” with jobs, diversification, and rising productivity

India’s agricultural sector has recorded an uninterrupted expansion over the last decade, with no year of negative income growth between 2015–16 and 2024–25, according to a recent assessment by NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand. The findings are detailed in his report “Agriculture in Meeting Aspirations of Rising India”, released on October 10 last year.

The report underscores the sector’s ability to withstand major disruptions, including the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely impacted non-agricultural segments of the economy but left farming activity largely unscathed. Over the period from 2015 to 2024, India’s agriculture grew at an average annual rate of 4.42 per cent, marginally outperforming China, whose growth stood at 4.10 per cent during the same timeframe.

Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, incomes of agricultural producers increased at an annual pace of 10.11 per cent, exceeding growth rates seen in manufacturing as well as the overall economy. Over a ten-year span, farmers’ incomes more than doubled, rising by 126 per cent, while producers’ incomes grew by 108 per cent between 2015–16 and 2022–23.

Chand places agriculture at the heart of India’s long-term development roadmap, noting that the ambition of building a “Viksit Bharat” by 2047 rests on boosting per capita incomes to developed-nation levels while ensuring broad-based, inclusive progress. Agriculture’s role remains central, he argues, given that the sector contributes nearly one-fifth of national income at current prices and provides livelihoods to about 46 per cent of the workforce.

The decade from 2014–15 to 2024–25 is described as the strongest growth phase in the history of Indian agriculture. This period has been marked not only by consistent expansion but also by a shift in demand patterns, with farmers increasingly diversifying into high-value crops and allied activities, signalling a deeper structural transformation.

The report also highlights the sector’s improved stability in the face of climate variability and global economic uncertainty. Agriculture has continued to absorb a growing labour force—particularly women—reinforcing its social and economic significance. These trends, Chand notes, point to the sector’s critical contribution to achieving the national development vision by 2047.

Growth in Gross Value Added from agriculture and allied activities picked up after 2004–05 and accelerated further after 2014–15. As a result, annual growth during 2015–16 to 2024–25 reached a record 4.45 per cent, the highest seen in any ten-year period since the early 1950s. This pace of expansion also places India ahead of other major agricultural economies over the last decade.

Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show that during 2006–2015, India’s agricultural growth of around 3 per cent matched the global average. However, while world agriculture slowed in the subsequent decade, India’s performance strengthened, allowing it to overtake China in growth terms.

Policy support and institutional measures have also expanded. Coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana increased from 3.4 crore farmers in 2018–19 to 4.1 crore in 2024–25. Agricultural credit as a share of output rose from 29.4 per cent in 2013–14 to 41.7 per cent in 2023–24, and by mid-2025, 1,522 mandis had been brought onto the e-NAM platform.

Production gains have been equally notable. Dairy output climbed from 146 million tonnes in 2014–15 to more than 239 million tonnes in 2023–24, while fruit and vegetable production rose from 280.7 million tonnes in 2013–14 to 367.72 million tonnes in 2023–24. India now leads the world in milk production and remains the largest exporter of rice.

The report also notes a significant improvement in agriculture’s terms of trade, which strengthened by over 41 percentage points between 2008–09 and 2020–21. Although the Wholesale Price Index for agriculture nearly doubled between 2011–12 and 2024–25, farm-gate prices still registered real annual gains of about 2.4 per cent over a 13-year period, reflecting sustained income support for the sector.

Together, these trends portray an agricultural economy that has not only grown faster than before but has done so with greater resilience, diversification, and strategic importance for India’s long-term development.