Agriculture’s share in global economy up: Ramesh Chand

The structural change in the global economy has reversed since the 2006 financial crisis with the agriculture sector witnessing a growth while manufacturing and non-agricultural sectors have slowed down, Ramesh Chand, member, NITI Aayog and chairman-BoG of the Institute of Economic Growth said.

“The agricultural sector’s contribution to global GDP has increased from 3.2% in 2006 to 4.3% in 2021 while the growth rate in manufacturing and non-agricultural sectors has slowed even in the developing countries,” Chand said while speaking at the inaugural session of Kautaliya Economic Conclave 2023 on Friday.

According to Chand, the slowdown in growth of the non-agricultural sector and manufacturing has also led to not enough employment opportunities being created by these sectors. “The industry and non-agricultural sector has failed to pull out workforce from agriculture,” said Chand, adding that the youth who want to move out of the agriculture sector are stuck there.


Further, the widening gap between the incomes of agricultural and non-agricultural workers is a serious implication of the structural shift in the global economy.

Agriculture contributes 4.3% of global GDP but provides employment to 26.4% of the world workforce. “When we look at developing countries, we find the share of agriculture in the economy is half or one-fourth of what its share is in employment,” Chand added.

Speaking on the issue of access to food, Chand said that though the per capita production of food has been rising in most of the countries, this has stopped lowering hunger and undernutrition in the global south in recent years. “The problem is the access to food rather than its availability,” Chand said.

According to Chand, this slowdown started in African countries around 2012-2014 then it spread to Latin America and South Asia.