Although I agree with all your substantive points here Karthik, I don’t think the agriculture sector as a whole is “poorer” than the rest of the country. Sure wage workers aren’t paid that much, but Kiwi farners are often mega rich sure to their insane and ever growing land/infrastructure/livestock asset base. Most new Zealand farmers would have net worth well into the millions, wages only tell part of the story.
I should have specified that I meant across developing countries. It’s possible that wages and output figures underestimate prosperity in the sector due to assets, but the vast majority of farms in developing countries are very small, so I doubt that changes the takeaway.
Although I agree with all your substantive points here Karthik, I don’t think the agriculture sector as a whole is “poorer” than the rest of the country. Sure wage workers aren’t paid that much, but Kiwi farners are often mega rich sure to their insane and ever growing land/infrastructure/livestock asset base. Most new Zealand farmers would have net worth well into the millions, wages only tell part of the story.
I should have specified that I meant across developing countries. It’s possible that wages and output figures underestimate prosperity in the sector due to assets, but the vast majority of farms in developing countries are very small, so I doubt that changes the takeaway.
Oh yeah I thought you were including places like new Zealand too based on the previous comment.