Most studies on levels of living of agricultural labour are based almost exclusively on trends in real wage rates of agricultural workers or, more strictly, wage rates of male agricultural workers. Depending upon the source of data on wage rates of male agricultural labour, the terminal years used for comparisons, the index numbers used for deflating money wages, and so on, the authors have drawn different conclusions about the trends in the real wag rates of agricultural labour. For studying the levels of living of agricultural labour, the level of income is more important than the wage rate, nominal or real. The wage rate is only one of the determinants of income; the other crucial factor is the level of employment. True, data on employment and earnings of agricultural labour are scanty. The more meaningful and rewarding task for researchers should, therefore, be to attempt to fill this gap than to continue with the interminable debate on trends in real wage rates. In the present paper an attempt is made to study the level of employment, income and food intake among selected agricultural labour households in Kuttanad, the 'rice bowl' of Kerala.