The
National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation, conducted Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural
Households in its 70th round (January – December, 2013). The
detailed results of this survey will be brought out through a series of three
reports. In order to make available the salient results of the survey to the
data users, well in advance of the release of the main reports, NSSO has
released the key indicators of situation of agricultural households in India.
NSSO conducted a similar survey on ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’
during January - December, 2003 in the rural areas of the country as part of
its 59th round.
The
survey covered the whole of the Indian Union. The survey aimed at capturing the
condition of agricultural households in the rural areas of the country in the
context of policies and programmes of Government of India.
It was designed to collect information on various
aspects relating to farming and other socio-economic characteristics of
agricultural households. Information on consumer
expenditure, information on income and productive assets, their indebtedness,
farming practices and preferences, resource availability, awareness of
technological developments, access to modern technology in the field of agriculture
and information on crop loss & crop insurance was also collected. With a
view to collect relevant information, separately for the two major agricultural
seasons in a year, the same set of sample households was visited two times
during the survey period. The first visit was made during January- July 2013
and the second during August- December 2013. The reference period for data
collection was the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.
An
agricultural household for this survey was defined as a household
receiving value of produce, more than Rs.3000/- from agricultural and having
at least one member self-employed in agriculture either in the principal status
or in subsidiary status during last 365 days. On the other hand, in the
‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ conducted in NSS 59th
Round, a ‘farmer’ was defined as a person who possesses some land and is
engaged in some agricultural activities on that land during last 365 days
preceding the date of survey. Thus the definition followed in NSS 59th
Round had kept all agricultural activities of persons outside the scope of the
survey which did not possess and operate any land.
Due
to the change in coverage and difference in some important concepts and
definitions followed in this survey vis-a-vis the 59th round
survey, the results of these two rounds are not strictly comparable. While
making any comparison of results of these two rounds, sufficient care should be
taken to account for these differences.
The
results of the survey are based on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO,
consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union
Territories. A total number of 35,200 households were surveyed in first visit
and 34,907 of them could be re-surveyed in second visit. Some salient findings
of the survey regarding situation of agricultural households in the country are
as follows:
A.
Number of Agricultural households
·
During the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013, rural India
had an estimated total of 90.2 million agricultural households, which
constituted about 57.8 percent of the total estimated rural households of the
country during the same period.
·
Uttar Pradesh, with an estimate of 18.05 million agricultural
households, accounted for about 20 percent of all agricultural households in
the country.
·
Rajasthan had highest percentage of agricultural households (78.4
percent) among its rural households and Kerala had the least percentage share
of agricultural households (27.3 percent) in its rural households.
- Out
of the total estimated agricultural households in the country, about 45
percent belonged to Other Backward Classes.
- About
16 percent agricultural households were from Scheduled Castes and 13
percent from Scheduled Tribes.
B.
Source of Income of Agricultural households
·
Principal source of income of agricultural households is largely
determined by the extent of land possession.
·
Majority of the agricultural households which possessed more than
0.40 hectare land, reported cultivation as their principal source of income.
·
Among the agricultural households having less than 0.01 hectare
land, about 56 percent reported wage/salary employment as their principal
source of income and another 23 percent reported livestock as their principal
source of income.
·
Agricultural activity (cultivation, livestock and other
agricultural activities) was reported to be the principal source of income for
majority of the agricultural households in all the major States, except Kerala
where about 61 percent of the agricultural households reported to have received
maximum income from sources other than agricultural activities.
- About
44 percent of the estimated agricultural households in the country had
MGNREGA job card during the survey period.
- In
rural India about 12 percent agricultural households did not possess any
ration card as on the date of the survey.
- BPL
card was possessed by about 36 percent of the estimated agricultural
households and another 5 percent possessed ‘Antyodaya’ cards.
- About
13 percent agricultural households having land less than 0.01 hectare did
not have ration card.
C.
Possession of Land by Agricultural households
- About
0.1 percent of the estimated agricultural households in rural India were
landless.
- About
93 percent of agricultural households in the country possessed some type
of land other than ‘homestead land only’ and little less than 7
percent possessed only homestead land.
- Around
78.5 percent of the agricultural households did not possess any land
outside the village they were residing during the survey period.
- Among
the households reported land possession outside the village, about 17.5
percent had land within the State itself and about 4 percent had land
outside the State.
D.
Income, investment and indebtedness
- About
52 percent of the agricultural households in the country were estimated to
be indebted.
- Among
the major States, Andhra Pradesh had the highest share of indebted
agricultural households in the country (92.9 percent) followed by
Telengana (89.1 percent) and Tamil Nadu (82.5 percent).
- In
rural India, about 60 percent of the amount of outstanding loans taken by
the agricultural households was taken from the institutional sources,
which included Government (2.1 percent), Co-operative society (14.8
percent) and banks (42.9 percent).
- Share
of income of agricultural households from non-farm business in their
average monthly income decreased with increase in land possession.
- Net
investment in productive assets per agricultural household increased with
increase in land size.
E.
Farming practices, crop
insurance etc.
- Of
the estimated 90.2 million agricultural households in the country, 86.5
percent households were engaged in crop production during the period July
2012- December 2012.
- The
average gross cropped area per agricultural household during this period
was 0.937 hectare.
- The
survey results indicated that very small segment of agricultural
households utilized crop insurance.
- Lack
of awareness was the most reported reason by the agricultural households
for not insuring their crops during the agricultural year July 2012- June
2013.
The publication related to above cited Key
Indicators is also available on the website of the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation. www.mospi.gov.in
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KSP/SG