India’s farmer population

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The National Statistical Office’s Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (SAAH) report for 2018-19 pegs the country’s “agricultural households” at 93.09 million.

Background: 

The objectives of the survey are:

• ownership and operational holdings of rural households
• ownership of livestock
• income, productive assets and indebtedness of agricultural households
• farming practices of agricultural households
• awareness and access to various technological developments in the field of agriculture
• receipts and expenditure of the agricultural households’ farm and non-farm businesses and receipts from all other economic activities pursued by the members of the agricultural households.

Indices of SAAH report

• Household type – Rural India has an estimated 90.2 million agricultural households— about 57.8% of the total estimated rural households in the country. An agricultural household was defined in the survey as a household receiving value of produce of more than Rs.3,000 from agriculture with at least one member self-employed in farming. What does this mean ? Around 58% of rural households are involved in agricultural activities. 40% make a living out of non-farming economic activities.Under the Census, any area not urban is deemed to be rural. What does this indicate? Farm sector’s share to GDP might keep falling even though rural area will have less of agriculture.
• Marginal Landholding– The percentage of landless households in rural India declined. Marginal landholdings rose. This is likely because of MGNREGS which probably dissuaded farming households from selling their land. This highlights the importance of MGNREGS.
• For marginal land owning families wage and salary employment was their principal source of income and not agriculture. Income from rearing livestock also is a significant component of total income.
• Income – Average monthly income per agricultural households around Rs. 6500. Farmers are earning less than even the person employed in the lowest rung of organized sector.
• Debt Level – Debt levels are very high. Nearly 52% of agricultural households in India are indebted , with levels of debt as high as 90% in AP.
• Access to Loans and Insurance – There is high dependence on non- institutional channels for credit. Loans are sourced from informal sources or moneylenders. The penetration of institutional sources like banks and cooperatives is rather low – only about 15%. Marginal landholdings households face maximum problem to access credit. Farm households are oblivious of crop insurance schemes that can help them hedge their production and income risks.
• Information about Government’s operations – Households are poorly informed of government procurement operations & MSP . Sale of crops is maximum to private procurement agencies. Farmers are unacquainted with new technologies . They do not receive adequate guidance from state run research institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and agricultural universities. There is considerable dependence on other progressive farmers, radio, private commercial agents.

Objectives of PM-KISAN scheme

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana is implemented as a central sector scheme by the Government of India. This scheme was introduced to augment the source of income of many small and marginal farmers. The main objectives of the PM-KISAN scheme are mentioned below:

• To provide income support to all eligible land-holding farmers and their families.
• PM-KISAN scheme also aims to supplement the financial needs of the farmers in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income.
• The scheme is expected to increase the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries. It aims to cover around 2 crores more farmers with an estimated expenditure of Rs. 87,217.50 crores will be funded by the Central Government.

Advantages of PM-KISAN Scheme

• The direct transfer of funds is one of the biggest advantages of this scheme. On December 25, 2020, in the presence of PM Narendra Modi, Rs.18,000 crores were directly transferred to the bank accounts of 9 crore farmers
• All the records related to farmers is registered officially on a digital platform which has made the registration and fund transfer easy. The digitalised records have brought about a new start to this welfare scheme
• This scheme eases liquidity constraints of farmers
• PM-KISAN yojana is a big step towards the Government’s initiatives of modernisation of agriculture
• There is no discrimination in choosing the PM-KISAN beneficiaries

The Indian Express Link:

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/revealing-indias-actual-farmer-population-7550159/