For the country's poorest districts, the only hope of escaping grinding poverty is to increase farm productivity in a big way -- in most of these districts, around 85 per cent of those employed work in the agricultural sector.
In contrast, in the upper income districts, the share of those working in agriculture to the total work force is generally between a third and a fourth.
Jhabua, in Madhya Pradesh, for instance, had a per capita income of just Rs 12,158 in 2005-06, making it the 578th district in the country (of the total of 593).
According to Indicus Analytics' latest report on agricultural income in the country, 87 per cent of those working in this district (43 per cent of the total population) are employed in the farm sector. In terms of land productivity, Jhabua is ranked 523rd with each hectare of land producing Rs 10,141 of output (on the basis of gross cropped area).
In terms of labour productivity, Jhabua is ranked an equally poor 535th, with each labourer generating just Rs 6,013 per year.
To put this in perspective, the most-productive district in the country, Wayanad in Kerala, has a land productivity of around 15 times as high -- Rs 151,441