The government said that the number of farmers in Gujarat as per the agri census of 2015-16, was 53.20 lakh, which is 4.35 lakh higher than the number of farmers according to the 2010-11 agri census. According to data provided by the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture minister in a written reply to a question byCongress MLAShailesh Parmar, there has been a rise in the number of marginal, small and semi-medium farmers in the state between 2010-11 and 2015-16. The number of medium farmers and big farmers has fallen during the same period. According to the 2015-16 agri census, there were 20.18 lakh marginal farmers, 16.15 lakh small farmers, 11.50 lakh semi-medium farmers, 4.95 medium farmers and 39,888 big farmers in the state. Compared to the 2010-11 agri census, the number of marginal farmers increased by 2.03 lakh, small farmers increased by 1.86 lakh, and semi-medium farmers increased by 70,721. The number of medium farmers decreased by 16,782, while the number of big farmers fell by 8,883.