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    • Feb 3, 2021
    • 2 min read

Indian Farm sector sees light: Was reverse migration a booster for this?

By Parvathareddy Anvitha.


COVID-19 shutdown unquestionably put the lives of migrant workers at stake as they prepared to move back to their homes. Due to this, the country’s GDP also fell drastically as migrant workers comprise of the highest percentage of contributors in the informal job market. But somewhere among all these back draws, there is one sector which is claimed to have flourished due to the return of migrant workers to their villages.

Indian farm sector has seen a sudden rise since the return of migrant workers. The sector saw rise in tractor sales with 11% more than that of 2019 (Federation of Automobile dealers Association) and it went on to increase in few months which indicates that more cultivation activities happened, and consumption rate has also increased. Reverse migration clearly pushed migrant workers to take up farming and additionally, good monsoons brought them more luck. The kharif crop growth in India has also moved up by 21% than that of 2019 in 2020.


This is not all. The sector also saw more women migrant workers participating in the agricultural activities. The reason why a lot of migrant workers had to choose farming was because the income and livelihood was certain due to good rainfall. Farming for them, not only acted as income but also a source of food. Until now, it was becoming difficult for the farmers to sow and cultivate large parts of land due to few numbers of labourers. But now, with the arrival of migrant workers, there is timely sowing and harvesting. A lot of migrant workers are also working on their ancestral farms and becoming self-sufficient.


Furthermore, the cash incentives offered by the government through PM-Kisan Scheme also interested a lot of migrant workers to take up farming. All in all, factors like these turned out to be favourable for all those migrant workers who live in their rural homes thereby flourishing the agricultural sector of our country.


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