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The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, had carried out a survey known as ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ during January to December, 2003, as part of its 59th round.
The survey was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and was conducted in the rural sector of the country.
The present report, namely, ‘Report no. 498: Indebtedness of Farmer Households; (January – December 2003) Main findings are:
At all-India level, estimated number of rural households was 147.90 million, of whom 60.4% were farmer households.
Out of 89.35 million farmer households, 43.42 million (48.6%) were reported to be indebted i.e. having a liability in cash or kind with value Rs. 300 or more at the time of transaction.
Estimated prevalence of indebtedness among farmer households was highest in Andhra Pradesh (82.0%), followed by Tamil Nadu (74.5%) and Punjab (65.4%).
Estimated number of indebted farmer households was highest in Uttar Pradesh (6.9 million), followed by Andhra Pradesh (4.9 million) and Maharashtra (3.6 million).
Households with one hectare or less land accounted for 66% of all farmer households. About 45% of them were indebted.
More than 50% of indebted farmer households had taken loan for the purpose of capital or current expenditure in farm business. Such loans accounted for 584 rupees out of every 1000 rupees of outstanding loan.
Marriages and ceremonies accounted for 111 rupees per 1000 rupees of outstanding loans of farmer households. Among the states the proportion was highest in Bihar (229 rupees per 1000 rupees), followed by Rajasthan (176 rupees per 1000 rupees).
The most important source of loan in terms of percentage of outstanding loan amount was banks (36%), followed by moneylenders (26%).
Average outstanding loan per farmer household was highest in the state of Punjab, followed by Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
This is the first one in the series of five reports to be brought out on the basis of this survey. In all 51,770 sample farmer households spread over 6,638 villages covering the entire rural area of the whole of the Indian Union except Leh (Ladakh) and Kargil districts of Jammu & Kashmir, interior villages of Nagaland situated beyond five kilometres of any bus route, and villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year, were interviewed.
A farmer household was defined as one which had at least one family member as a farmer. A farmer was understood to be a person who possessed some land and was engaged in agricultural activities on any part of that land during the last 365 days. Agricultural activity was taken to include cultivation of field and horticultural crops, growing of trees and plantations such as rubber, cashew, coconut, pepper, coffee, tea, etc; animal husbandry, poultry, fishery, bee-keeping, vermiculture, sericulture, etc. Again, a farmer household was considered to be indebted if it had any loan in cash or kind and its value at the time of transaction was Rs. 300 or more.
The report presents the details of the indebtedness of farmer households by social groups or by sources of income of farmers in different States and UT’s. Further, it presents the indebtedness of farmer households by size-class of land possessed in different States and UT’s. Distribution of outstanding loans by purpose of loan and by source of loan have been analysed in the report. Details on average amount of outstanding loan per farmer household by Monthly Per-capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) class or by size class of land possessed, have also been shown in the report.
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