An article in the Wall Street Journal on the Indian economy noted that “an estimated 263 million Indians—55 percent of the country’s workforce—eke out a living from farms. This makes any attempt at agriculture reform both economically significant and politically risky.”

a. Why would farmers in India only be able to “eke out a living”? Why would incomes in agriculture be lower than incomes outside agriculture?

b. Would India be better off economically with a smaller agricultural sector? Why might reforms that would shrink the relative size of the Indian agricultural sector be difficult for the Indian government to implement?