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Current Economic Statistics and Review For the Week 
Ended November 7, 2008 (45th Weekly Report of 2008)

 

Theme of the week:

Economic Cencus-7

Distribution of Enterprises By Economics Activities: Agriculture Activities*  

1.Introduction

            The Economic Censuses conducted by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) not only cover the censuses of the number of enterprises spread over the economy and the persons employed by them, but also collect information as to the nature of economic activities these enterprises are engaged in. These economic activities are then grouped into two main categories, viz., agricultural sector and non-agricultural sector according to the National Industrial Classification (NIC) used at the time of the census. The results of economic activities canvassed under the Economic Census 1980 were grouped by using NIC 1977 (expanded version). Similarly, NIC 1987 was used to group data under different activities canvassed during Economic Censuses 1990 and 1998. Finally, data obtained during the recent Economic Census 2005 (EC 2005) has been grouped by using NIC 2004. Thus, there are some chances that some activities at four-digit level have been grouped differently under various NICs and hence there will occur some differences while comparing the data under different Economic Censuses. However, at two-digit level of classification, these differences are almost negligible to make any impact in their comparison between different censuses. 

            This note, the seventh in the series of notes dealing in different aspects of data collected through Economic Censuses, mainly deals with data grouped under Agricultural Activities. Here, it may be recalled that in our earlier notes also, we have had some brief discussion on the agricultural activities as narrowly defined for the Economic Census studies.

2. Economic Activities Grouped Under Agricultural Sector            

Agricultural Enterprise is defined as one engaged in livestock production, agricultural services, hunting, trapping and game propagation, forestry and logging, fishing (corresponding to groups 012,013,014,015,020 and 050 of NIC 2004).

Establishments engaged in activities pertaining to crop production and plantation (group 011 of NIC 2004) has been excluded under the coverage of Economic Censuses.

A broad list of activities grouped under the agricultural sector along different censuses by using different NICs has been given below in Table 1.

Table 1:  Broad List of Economic Activities Under Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing 

NIC

 

1977

1987

2004

 

 

02

012

Live Stock Production/Farming of Animals

 

020

020-021

 

Cattle and Goat - breeding, ranching, etc. production of milk

021

022

 

Rearing of sheep and production of wool

 

 

022

023

 

Rearing of horses, mules, camels and other pack animals

023

024

 

Rearing of pigs and other animals

 

 

024

025

 

Rearing of ducks, hens and other birds and production of eggs

025

026

 

Rearing of bees and production of honey and wax

 

026

027

 

Rearing of silk worms and production of cocoons and raw silk

029

029

 

Rearing of livestock and production nec.

 

 

 

 

013

Growing crop combined with Farming of animals

 

 

03

014

Agricultural Services

 

 

 

030

030

 

Pest destroying, spraying, pruning of infected stems, etc.

031

031

 

Operation of irrigation system

 

 

 

032

032

 

Animal shearing and livestock products

 

 

033

033

 

Grading of agricultural and livestock products

 

034

034

 

Horticultural and nursery services

 

 

035

035

 

Soil conversion including soil testing

 

 

036

036

 

Scientific services like soil testing

 

 

039

039

 

Agricultural Services nec (like land clearing, draining, etc)

040

040

015

Hunting, Trapping and Game Propagation

 

 

05

020

Forestry and Logging

 

 

 

050

050

 

Planting, replanting and conservation of forests

 

051

051

 

Logging -felling and cutting of trees and preparation

 

052

052

 

Production of fuel (incl. charcoal burning) by exploitation of forests

053

053

 

Gathering of fodder by exploitation of forests

 

054

054

 

Gathering of uncultivated materials such as gums, resins, etc

059

059

 

Other forest products nec/Other forest services nec

 

 

06

050

Fishing

 

 

 

 

 

060

060

 

Ocean, sea and coastal fishing (commercial basis)

 

061

061

 

Inland water fishing (commercial basis)

 

 

062

062

 

Pisiculture

 

 

 

 

063

063

 

Collection of pearls, conches, shells, sponge etc

 

 

064

 

Cultivation of oysters for pearls

 

 

 

069

069

 

Fishing and allied activities nec

 

 

 

These different activities are grouped into livestock production (farming of animals according to EC 2005), agricultural services, hunting, trapping and game propagation, forestry and logging and fishing. All these groups are summed up to arrive at different characteristics of agricultural enterprises. The CSO had disseminated only total agricultural sector data for the second, third and fourth Economic Censuses. But in the latest Economic Census conducted in 2005, further classification of agriculture sector into farming of animals, agricultural services, etc and fishing has been disseminated by CSO.

3. Growth in Agricultural Enterprises

According to the 5th Economic Census, there have been 6.08 million agricultural enterprises in the country accounting for 14.5 per cent of the total enterprises in 2005. Out of these 6.08 million, 5.71 million agricultural enterprises forming about 94 per cent of the total agricultural enterprises has been located in the rural areas and the remaining 0.4 million in urban areas. As against this, in 1980 there were 1.46 million agricultural enterprises spread over rural and urban India with 1.28 million in rural areas. At this level, the compound average annual growth rate works out to be 5.9 per cent during the 25-year period spanning 1980 and 2005.  In 2005, own account enterprises have numbered 5.13 agricultural enterprises, an addition of 3.90 million enterprises during the 25-year period with a CAGR of 5.9 per cent. 

Table 2:  Distribution of Enterprises By Agricultural Economic Activities

Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (excl: Agricultural Production and Plantation )

 

Rural

Urban

Rural+Urban

 

OAE

Estt.

All

OAE

Estt.

All

OAE

Estt.

All

Number of Enterprises 

1980

1094750

189289

1284039

135355

38390

173745

1230105

227679

1457784

1990

1843836

253244

2097080

186446

48684

235130

2030282

301928

2332210

1998

2886236

314404

3200640

216705

57460

274165

3102941

371864

3474805

2005

4848014

860985

5708999

284205

86779

370984

5132219

947764

6079983

CAGR in Number of Enterprises 

1980-90

(5.35)

(2.95)

(5.03)

(3.25)

(2.40)

(3.07)

(5.14)

(2.86)

(4.81)

1990-98

(5.76)

(2.74)

(5.43)

(1.90)

(2.09)

(1.94)

(5.45)

(2.64)

(5.11)

1998-05

(7.69)

(15.48)

(8.62)

(3.95)

(6.07)

(4.42)

(7.45)

(14.30)

(8.32)

1980-05

(6.13)

(6.25)

(6.15)

(3.01)

(3.32)

(3.08)

(5.88)

(5.87)

(5.88)

Share of Enterprises to Total Enterprise

1980

75.1

13.0

88.1

9.3

2.6

11.9

84.4

15.6

100.0

1990

79.1

10.9

89.9

8.0

2.1

10.1

87.1

12.9

100.0

1998

83.1

9.0

92.1

6.2

1.7

7.9

89.3

10.7

100.0

2005

79.7

14.2

93.9

4.7

1.4

6.1

84.4

15.6

100.0

Source: CSO(2008),Economic Census 2005, All India Report and Previous Reports 

Though the growth rate of establishment with hired workers during the 25-year period works out to be 5.9 per cent, the actual addition of number of enterprises had been only 0.7 million during the period 1980 and 2005 (Table 2). Table 3 shows the number of directory and non-directory establishments.

An establishment with hired worker, employing six or more persons daily on a fairly regular basis is termed as directory establishment. The addition of agricultural directory establishment between 1998 and 2005 works out to about 17 thousand, the entire addition has been in rural areas.

An establishment with hired worker, employing less than 6 persons daily on a fairly regular basis is termed as agricultural Non Directory Establishment whose number got expanded 5.6 lakh during 1998 and 2005, with 5.3 lakh addition of agricultural non-directory establishments in rural areas.

Table  3:  Directory and Non-Directory Establishment (‘ 000 numbers)

   

1998

2005

   

NDE

DE

Total

NDE

DE

Total

Agriculture Rural

273

41

314

802

59

861

  Urban

48

10

57

77

10

87

  Combined

321

51

372

880

68

948

NDE - Non-directory enterprises   DE - Directory enterprises
 *: Economic censuses have not been conducted for Assam in 1980 and for J & K in 1990.
Source: CSO (2008): Economic Census 2005 - All India Report and earlier issues

4: Distribution of Agricultural Enterprise by Three Major Economic Activities            

The fifth Economic Census conducted in 2005, reveals three major activities pursued by agricultural enterprises along with employment therein.; there were thus three major activity groups’ viz., farming of animals, agricultural services and fishing.

Out of 6.1 million enterprises, farming of animals dominated with its total share of 87 per cent (5.3 million), and 94.3 per cent of enterprises involved in farming of animals were found in rural areas. Among the 5.3 million enterprises engaged in farming of animals, 4.5 million enterprises accounting for about 85 per cent were on account enterprises and the rest 15 per cent were establishment with hired workers. Out of this 0.74 million establishments with hired workers, 0.71 million enterprises had been non-directory establishments and 39,406 enterprises had been directory establishments (Table 4).

            About 0.43 million forming about 7 percent of total enterprises has been engaged in agricultural services with 0.31 million of them being own account enterprises and the remaining 0.12 lakh comprising of 0.10 lakh has been non-directory establishments and 15,263 has been directory establishments.

            Different kind of fishing has been the third major economic activities of 0.36 million agricultural enterprises. Among them major chunk of 0.27 million were owned by own account enterprises. Among the remaining 87,371 establishments with hired workers, 73,835 had been non-director establishment and 13,536 had been directory establishment.

Table 4: Distribution of Agricultural Enterprises by Major Activities

(Number of Agricultural Enterprises)

 

OAE

Estt

NDE

DE

Total

Rural          
All Agricultural Activities

4848014

860985

802298

58687

5708999

% to All India

(94.5)

(90.8)

(91.2)

(86.0)

(93.9)

Farming of Animals

4306874

679231

645038

34193

4986105

% to All Activities

(88.8)

(78.9)

(80.4)

(58.3)

(87.3)

Agricultural Services

303534

108757

94873

13884

412291

% to All Activities

(6.3)

(12.6)

(11.8)

(23.7)

(7.2)

Fishing etc

237606

72997

62387

10610

310603

% to All Activities

(4.9)

(8.5)

(7.8)

(18.1)

(5.4)

Urban          
All Agricultural Activities

284205

86779

77256

9523

370984

% to All India

(5.5)

(9.2)

(8.8)

(14.0)

(6.1)

Farming of Animals

237768

65438

60225

5213

303206

% to All Activities

(83.7)

(75.4)

(78.0)

(54.7)

(81.7)

Agricultural Services

10750

6967

5583

1384

17717

% to All Activities

(3.8)

(8.0)

(7.2)

(14.5)

(4.8)

Fishing etc

35687

14374

11448

2926

50061

% to All Activities

(12.6)

(16.6)

(14.8)

(30.7)

(13.5)

Rural +Urban          
All Agricultural Activities

5132219

947764

879554

68210

6079983

% to All India

(100.0)

(100.0)

(100.0)

(100.0)

(100.0)

Farming of Animals

4544642

744669

705263

39406

5289311

% to All Activities

(88.6)

(78.6)

(80.2)

(57.8)

(87.0)

Agricultural Services

314284

115724

100456

15268

430008

% to All Activities

(6.1)

(12.2)

(11.4)

(22.4)

(7.1)

Fishing etc

273293

87371

73835

13536

360664

% to All Activities

(5.3)

(9.2)

(8.4)

(19.8)

(5.9)

 Source: CSO(2008), Economic Census 2005 

5. Special Characteristics of Agricultural Enterprises

The number of seasonal agricultural enterprises rose from 209,000 in 1980 to 808,000 enterprises according EC-2005. However the growth rate registered a declining trend over different censuses. Between 1980 and 1990, CAGR was 8.2 per cent, which declined to 4.9 per cent in the period 1990-1998 then to 2.6 per cent during 1998-2005. The average annual growth rate during the 25-year period works out to 5.6 per cent.

However, the number of perennial agricultural enterprises steadily rose during the period with a compounded annual average growth rate of 5.9 per cent during the 25-year period. The trend was same for both own account enterprises and establishment with at least one hired worker. However, the seasonal agricultural establishment with at-least one hired worker there was a notable increase between 1998 and 2005.  

Table 5: Special characteristics of Agricultural Enterprises ( in ' 000 numbers)

 

1980

1990

1998

2005

Characteristics

OAE Estt. Total OAE Estt. Total OAE Estt. Total OAE Estt. Total
                         
No. of Enterprises

1230

228

1458

2030

302

2332

3103

372

3475

5132

948

6080

 

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

(100)

Seasonal Ent.

174

35

209

400

57

457

602

70

672

656

151

807

 

(14.1)

(15.4)

(14.3)

(19.7)

(18.9)

(19.6)

(19.4)

(18.8)

(19.3)

(12.8)

(15.9)

(13.3)

Perennial Ent.

1056

193

1249

1630

245

1875

2501

302

2803

4476

797

5273

 

(85.9)

(84.6)

(85.7)

(80.3)

(81.1)

(80.4)

(80.6)

(81.2)

(80.7)

(87.2)

(84.1)

(86.7)

With Power

38

30

68

91

44

135

179

78

257

375

166

541

 

(3.1)

(13.2)

(4.7)

(4.5)

(14.6)

(5.8)

(5.8)

(21.0)

(7.4)

(7.3)

(17.5)

(8.9)

Without Power

1192

198

1390

1939

258

2197

2924

294

3218

4757

782

5539

 

(96.9)

(86.8)

(95.3)

(95.5)

(85.4)

(94.2)

(94.2)

(79.0)

(92.6)

(92.7)

(82.5)

(91.1)

With Premises

781

176

957

1375

237

1612

2262

260

2522

4058

687

4745

 

(63.5)

(77.2)

(65.6)

(67.7)

(78.5)

(69.1)

(72.9)

(69.9)

(72.6)

(79.1)

(72.5)

(78.0)

Without Premises

449

52

501

655

65

720

841

112

953

1074

261

1335

 

(36.5)

(22.8)

(34.4)

(32.3)

(21.5)

(30.9)

(27.1)

(30.1)

(27.4)

(20.9)

(27.5)

(22.0)

CAGR in per cent

1980-90

1990-98

1998-05

1980-05

No. of Enterprises

5.1

2.9

4.8

5.4

2.6

5.1

7.5

14.3

8.3

5.9

5.9

5.9

Seasonal Ent.

8.7

5.0

8.1

5.2

2.6

4.9

1.2

11.6

2.6

5.5

6.0

5.6

Perennial Ent.

4.4

2.4

4.1

5.5

2.6

5.2

8.7

14.9

9.4

5.9

5.8

5.9

With Power

9.1

3.9

7.1

8.8

7.4

8.4

11.1

11.4

11.2

9.6

7.1

8.6

Without Power

5.0

2.7

4.7

5.3

1.6

4.9

7.2

15.0

8.1

5.7

5.6

5.7

With Premises

5.8

3.0

5.4

6.4

1.2

5.8

8.7

14.9

9.4

6.8

5.6

6.6

Without Premises

3.8

2.3

3.7

3.2

7.0

3.6

3.6

12.8

4.9

3.6

6.7

4.0

Note: Figures in brackets are percentages to total 

Source: CSO(2008), Economic Census 2005, All India Report and Previous Issues

 Number of enterprises using power has increased from 68,000 in 1980, then to 135,000 in 1990, further to 252,200 in 1998 and finally to 541,000 by 2005. At this level the CAGR works out to 11.2 per cent during 1998-2005 and over all CAGR during the period 1980 to 2005 stands at 8.7 per cent. Share of agricultural enterprises using power steadily increased from 4.7 per cent in 1980 to 8.9 percent in 2005 and the share of agricultural enterprises without power witnessed a steady decline over the year. There was steady increase in the number of own account enterprises as well as establishment with at least one hired worker using power for the agricultural economic activities.

The number of agriculture enterprises with premises grew at CAGR of 6.6 per cent during 1980-2005 and that working without fixed premises has also increased, but at a lower CAGR of 4.0 per cent. While own account premises working from fixed premises grew faster at a CAGR of 6.8 per cent during 1980-2005, that the growth of establishment with at least one hired worker operating without premises grew faster at a CAGR of 6.7 per cent (Table 4).

6. Employment in Agricultural Enterprises

All Agricultural Enterprises (OAE+Estt)

Agricultural enterprises employed 10.9 million people in 2005 as against 2.8 million in 1980, a massive increase of 8.1 million people in 25-years with an CAGR of 5.52 per cent (Table 6). The growth rate was fastest between 1998 and 2005 with CAGR of 7.11 per cent during the period.  

Table 6 :Employment In Agricultural Sector

 

1980

1990

1998

2005

  Employment (number in ' 000)
Rural

2451

4233

6133

10175

Urban

398

531

616

738

All-India

2849

4764

6749

10913

  Rate of Employment
Rural

1.91

2.02

1.92

1.78

Urban

2.29

2.26

2.25

1.99

All-India

1.95

2.04

1.94

1.79

  CAGR in Percent 
 

1980-90

1990-98

1998-05

1980-05

Rural

5.62

4.74

7.50

5.86

Urban

2.93

1.87

2.61

2.50

All-India

5.28

4.45

7.11

5.52

Source: CSO(2008), Economic Census 2005, All India Report and earlier Census Reports

While rural agricultural employment grew from 2.5 million people in 1980 to 10.2 million people in 2005, that in urban area increased from 0.4 million in 1980 to 0.7 million in 2005. In 2005, the share of employment in rural area was 93.2 per cent as against 86.0 per cent in 1980. However, a marginal decline in average worker per enterprises has been witnessed during the period.

Table 7: Hired Employment in Agricultural Sector

 

1980

1990

1998

2005

 

No of Hired Workers (Numbers in ' 000)

Rural

433

680

755

1948

Urban

121

166

168

238

All-India

554

846

923

2186

 

Share of Hired Workers

 

Rural

17.7

16.1

12.3

19.1

Urban

30.4

31.3

27.3

32.2

All-India

19.4

17.8

13.7

20.0

Source: CSO(2008), Economic Census 2005, All India Report and earlier Census Reports

Hired workers increased from 0.6 million to 2.2 million during the period with rural enterprises employing most of the workers. In 2005, hired workers formed about 20.0 per cent of the total workers in agricultural enterprises, as against 19.5 per cent in 1980 (Table 7). A marginal increase of 1.8 per cent were witnessed in the share of hired workers in urban areas and a one percent increase in the share of hired workers engaged by rural agricultural enterprises.

Agricultural Own Account Enterprises (OAE)

Table 8: Employment in OAE Agricultural Enterprises

 

1980

1990

1998

2005

 

Employment (Number in ' 000) 

Rural

1809

3236

4983

7424

Urban

232

313

371

415

All-India

2041

4764

5354

7839

 

Rate of Employment  

Rural

1.65

1.75

1.73

1.53

Urban

1.72

1.68

1.71

1.46

All-India

1.66

2.35

1.73

1.53

 

CAGR in per cent 

 

1980-90

1990-98

1998-05

1980-05

Rural

5.99

5.54

5.86

5.81

Urban

3.04

2.15

1.61

2.35

All-India

8.85

1.47