The socio economic and caste census, 2011, released on Friday again points out how poorly agriculture sector fares in the state.

The household income generated from agri-sector in rural areas of the country is around 30.10% but in Kerala only 10.25 percent of the rural population surveyed depended on income from agriculture.

The western region of the country seems to earn the most from agri-income. Over 35 percent of the rural population in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra depends on income from agri-sector as main source of revenue.

The household income in Kerala’s rural areas mainly comes from casual labour, be it in construction activity or other public works department (PWD) related work. Around 50.53 percent of rural population depended on this income while the national average was around 51.14 percent.

Bihar topped the list of rural population doing manual work (70.59 percent) followed by Tamil Nadu (65.77 percent) and West Bengal (58.38 percent).

Experts said many people were forced to work as manual labourers as there are few jobs in villages. "People in rural areas find jobs mainly in construction sector and road repair work and they constitute a major chunk of the unorganised work force,” said K N Harilal, associate fellow, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram.