The 70th report on the “Situation of Agricultural Households in India”, released by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), reveals that much is wrong with Indian farmers’ economic status, despite several programmes being run by the government to raise their incomes. Given below are some of the highlights of this survey.

The report given by the NSSO gives the record of the plight of the Indian farmers economic status.  It paints a rather sad picture of the state of affairs and reveals the poor economic health of the Indian farming sector.

 Inspite of the governments effort to provide banks and financial institution's services at door steps of the farmers Informal sector still remains relevant to meet the financial needs.There is too much dependence on the informal credits through the moneylenders at high rate of interest. As a result over half of all farm households remain heavily indebted. Loan from the formal sector are available to a limited section only and the penetration is not yet deep.

The average monthly income of an Indian farming household is merely Rs 6500 which is on a very low side based on international standards.


This also reveals the flaws in the government's implementation of agricultural development and social welfare programmes. Food inflation although having remained in double digits over the least 2-3 years, has not benefited the farmers in a sufficient manner. The reason for this can be attributed to the low awareness regarding the government's procurement programmes, and Minimum Support Prices, and also to the failure of many to sell their produce to the government agencies.

Lack of participation of the farm sector in crop insurance schemes makes them prone to income risk in case of crop failure. In the absence of crop insurance, which can enable farmers to hedge their production and income risks, they have to incur heavy losses at times

Participation in rural employment guarantee scheme is low and the percentage of small landholders and marginal farmers enrolled in the scheme is lower still.

This persistent economic distress has resulted in drop in the number of people involved in farming activities over the last 2 decades.

Better implementation of the government's agricultural development and social welfare schemes along with the awareness among the farmers is the need of the hour to strengthen this sector and safeguard the interests of the Indian farmers