State of Indian Farmer A Survey - CSDS · etc. Even under British colonial rule, India’s economy...

Introduction

Indian agriculture has made rapid strides since independence. Institutional changes and the

gradual adoption of modern techniques have increased agricultural productivity over the years.

Agro-climatic factors play a major role in determining crop yield and farm income. Though

agriculture was the main source of livelihood for most people in the pre colonial period, various

kinds of manufacturing activities also made a substantial contribution to the country’s economy.

India was particularly well known for its handloom industries, metal and precious stones works

etc. Even under British colonial rule, India’s economy remained agrarian in nature as about 85

percent of the country’s population lived mostly in villages and derived livelihood directly or

indirectly from agriculture.

Indian agriculture since Independence has witnessed different phases, from food shortages and

dependence on imports and food aids to self-sufficiency; As agriculture has gradually changed

from subsistence farming to technology led cultivation, India has emerged as a front ranking

producer of many crops in the world;

Today, Agriculture is a source of livelihood for more than 65% of the population. It provides

many raw materials to industries. Massive increase in production of food grains from a mere 51

million tonnes in the early fifties to 259.32 Million tonnes in 2011-12, has not translated into

equitable food security among every section of the society. Although Indian agriculture,

including allied activities, account for only 14.1 per cent of the GDP at constant (2004-05)

prices1 , it continues to employ as many as – percent of the total labour force in the country.

Around 250 million cultivators and agricultural labourers form the backbone of Indian

agriculture. The declining share of agriculture and allied activities in the country's GDP is

consistent with normal development trajectory of any economy, but the peculiarity lies in the fact

that the accompanying fall in the share of total employment has not been proportional. High

agricultural growth remains vital for jobs, incomes, and acquiring food security in any economy.

Despite numerous accomplishments in the sphere of technology and agriculture, the condition of

farmers today continues to be a matter of great concern.

1 GOI. Ministry of External Affiars, Investment & Technology Promotion (ITP). Retrieved from

http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/economy/agriculture.htm. Accessed on 16/06/2014

As per land use statistics released in 2009-10, only 140 Million hectares out of the total

geographical area of the country - 328.7 million hectares, is net sown area2. The gross cropped

area is 192.2 million hectares and thus the cropping intensity works out to be 137.3%3. The net

irrigated area is only 63.3 million hectares4. Development process also has an impact on

agriculture as cultivatable land is often acquired for public purposes and establishment of

industries. Growth rate of agriculture in most states of the country has been extremely low

primary due to low investment in key agricultural infrastructure like irrigation facilities etc. Most

Indian farmers continue to remain dependent on the monsoon as more than 60 percent of

cultivated area is still rainfed5.

No comprehensive study has been conducted on the economic and social status of farmer

households after the State of the Indian Farmer – Millennium Study conducted by the Ministry of

Agriculture in 2004. . The study was a comprehensive socio-economic survey of the farmers

covering educational status, levels of living, farming practices, possession of productive assets,

awareness and access to modern technology, resource availability, indebtedness and other

relevant issues. The results of the survey showed the dreadful condition of farmer household are

it in income, expenditure or indebtedness of farming households6.

Indian agriculture is at a cross road today as agricultural production and crop yield have nearly

stagnated. Profits margins of farmers have decreased drastically as a result of increasing cost of

cultivation. Farmers are now finding it difficult to pay back loans taken from various sources at

high rates of interest. Farmers in many parts of the country are committing suicides because of

their inability to fulfill debt obligations.

Providing for the minimum needs of farmers and their family members is a major concern for the

academia, planners and policy makers. Programmes and initiatives introduced over the last 65

years have been unable to address all problems of Indian farmers. Declining public investment in

2 Promode Kant ‘Sector Profile: India’ Climate Focus.p.1, Retrieved from

http://www.climateandlandusealliance.org/uploads/PDFs/India_Sector_Profile.pdf. Accessed on 16/06/2014 3 Ibid 4 Hrideshwer Gupta (2013) ‘Sector Profile: India’ International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and

Social Sciences .p.221, Retrieved from http://www.garph.co.uk/IJARMSS/May2013/17.pdf . Accessed on

16/06/2014 5 Watershed Support Services and Activities Netwok .(2007)‘New Paradigm for Rainfed Farming’.p. vii, Retrieved

from http://www.rainfedfarming.org/documents/Rainfedworkshop_Proceedings.pdf . Accessed on 16/06/2014 6 State of the Indian Farmer – Millenium Study (2004), Yoginder K Alagh; Minitry of Agriculture

agriculture is one of the main factors behind the poor state of Indian farmers. Farmers are

distressed due to various factors like soil and water degradation, ground water depletion,

declining size of land holding, high population pressure on land and absence of non-farm

employment in rural areas. Due to unfavourable terms of trade for agriculture and low net

income, farming has become an unrewarding profession. Farmers do not want their children to

continue in this profession. Civil society organizations have been unable to address the problems

being faced by Indian farmers. There can be an improvement in the yield if institutional reforms

are introduced for improving the management of key natural resources. Weakening of the

productive capacity of the Indian farmer may pose a huge threat to the country’s plan for food

security. Under these circumstances, the study ‘State of Indian Farmer’ is an attempt towards

situation assessment of Indian agriculture.

Review of Literature

Much of the recent literature on India’s farm sector focuses on the rising levels of agrarian

distress and the related phenomenon of farmer’s suicides. According to National Crime Records

Bureau (NCRB) data, at least 2, 70,940 farmers have committed suicide since 1995 at an annual

average of 14,462 in six years, from 1995 to 2000 and 16,743 in 11 years between 2001 and

2011.7 One of the most striking features of the NCRB data is the extremely high concentration of

farmers’ suicides in five Indian states - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya

Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which together accounted for two-thirds of all farmers’ suicides in the

country. The magnitude of this problem speaks volumes about the condition of the Indian farmer

and the state of India’s agricultural sector.

A great number of empirical studies on the subject have presented compelling evidence of

growing levels of agrarian distress on account of poorly implemented land reforms, poor

condition of rural infrastructure, high costs of cultivation and mechanization, lack of adequate

and timely institutional credit and flawed government policies relating to prices of farm produce,

provision of agricultural subsidies and employment generation.

7 P. Sainath (2013) “Farmers’ suicide rates soar above the rest” The Hindu, May 18.

Land Reforms

Land reforms continue to remain an unfinished agenda even after 67 years of Independence.

According to a scholarly analysis of land ownership and distribution in rural India, over 40% of

the households in rural India do not own land.8 Land distribution in rural India is highly unequal.

Inequality in land ownership varies across states. It is highest in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana

and Andhra Pradesh and lowest in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura.9

Over the years, there have been significant changes in the pattern of land ownership. As per the

Agriculture Census 2010-11, small and marginal holdings of less than 2 hectare account for 85

per cent of the total operational holdings and 44 per cent of the total operated area. The average

size of holdings for all operational classes put together (small & marginal, medium and large)

has come down to 1.15 hectare in 2010-11from 2.82 hectare in 1970-71.10

Legislation regarding ceiling on landownership has not worked as envisaged as the redistribution

of land declared surplus is being held up on account of litigation. There are numerous cases that

have been reported, where the title deeds (pattas) are not in the possession of the beneficiaries. A

large number of Benami transactions have also been reported which defeats the purpose of the

legislation. Issues of land rights are also a major problem in the case of tribal lands

In order to address the issue of inequality in access to land resources, the National Commission

on Farmers, chaired by Professor M.S. Swaminathan had made some important policy

recommendations like distribution of ceiling-surplus and waste lands, prevention of diversion of

prime agricultural land and forest to corporate sector for non-agricultural purposes, setting up a

mechanism for regulating the sale of agricultural land, and establishing a National Land Use

Advisory Service, which would have the capacity to link land use decisions with ecological,

meteorological and marketing factors on a location and season specific basis.

8 Figures are based on the household level data of the NSSO for the years 1992 and 2002-03. 9 Vikas Rawal (2008) “Ownership Holdings of Land in Rural India: Putting the Record Straight”, Economic and

Political Weekly, March 8.

10 Ministry of Agriculture.

Rural Infrastructure

Several studies and evaluations confirm the positive link between rural infrastructure and

improved livelihoods, health and productivity, and reduced poverty.11 Public spending on

productivity-enhancing infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, irrigation, agricultural research

and development (R&D) and education contributes to reducing poverty through improved

agricultural productivity, higher wages and non-farm employment.12

Electricity: Rural electrification has been a priority for most governments in recent times as

continuous and uninterrupted supply of electricity to farmlands and rural households is

absolutely essential for the overall development of rural areas. Around half of India’s rural

population still does not have access to adequate supply of power. Although India has near

universal village electrification, Census 2011 showed that in reality, only 55 percent of rural

households have access to electricity. There is a stark urban-rural divide in terms of the

consumption of electricity. Rural per capita consumption of electricity is only 8 kWh per month

as compared to 24 kWh in urban areas13. Even though urban and rural consumption levels may

vary due to various reasons, it is important to investigate the possible reasons behind such wide

variations in access to electricity.

Water and Irrigation: Water is a precious resource as it is absolutely essential for sustaining

agriculture. Irrigation accounts for over 80 per cent of water use in India.14 It is a well

established fact that poor management of irrigation systems has resulted in a drastic decline in

the use of the country’s irrigation potential— from 100 per cent at the time of Independence to

an estimated 24 per cent during the Eleventh Plan period. One of the key reasons behind poor

management and maintenance of distribution systems is the abolition of the Irrigation Service

11 IDFC Rural Development Network (2013) India Rural Development Report 2012-13, Delhi: Orient Blackswan. 12 Datt, Gaurav and Martin Ravallion (1996) Why Have Some Indian States Done Better Than Others at Reducing

Rural Poverty?, Policy Research Working Paper Series No. 1594, April, Washington D.C.: World Bank. Fan,

Shengenn, Peter Hazell and SukhadeoThorat (2000) Government Spending, Growth and Poverty in RuralIndia,

American Journal of Agricultural Economics 82 (4): 1038–51. Fan, Shenggen, Ashok Gulati and SukhadeoThorat

(2007) Investment, Subsidies, and Pro-Poor Growth in Rural India, IFPRI Discussion Paper No. 00716.

International Food Policy Research Institute, September.

13 Planning Commission of India 2012. 14 Piyush Tiwari and Ajay Pandey (2011) Overview. In Water: Policy and Performance for Sustainable

Development, India Infrastructure Report, 2011, New Delhi: Infrastructure Development Finance Company and

Oxford University Press.

Fee (ISF) or its reduction to the point that states cannot fund management and maintenance. The

politicization of the ISF has only made matters worse for the small and marginal farmers.15

It is on account of such limitations of surface water distribution that millions of India’s farmers

today have resorted to exploiting groundwater reserves to irrigate their fields. In the last four

decades there has been a heavy rise in groundwater irrigation. It must be noted though that there

are wide inter-state and intra-state variations in irrigation coverage. States like Punjab, Harayana

and Uttar Pradesh have 95 percent, 85 percent and 76 percent irrigation coverage, respectively

whereas Assam, Jharkhand and Kerala have 4 percent, 10 percent and 17 percent irrigation

coverage respectively.16 Within states, for example, in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra,

cotton growers are still dependent on monsoons and only 6-8 percent of the net sown area is

irrigated.

Most studies conducted on the state of India’s irrigation sector have identified low water use

efficiency, poor maintenance of irrigation systems and poor recovery of water charges as some

of the major problems associated with the management of water resources in the country.

Promotion of micro-irrigation techniques, alignment of cropping pattern with the availability of

water and greater involvement and empowerment of Water Users associations in the command

areas could lead to improvement in water use efficiency.

A good example of effective water resource management is the Jyotigram initiative in Gujarat,

which has succeeded in breaking the energy–groundwater nexus by segregating power feeders

for residential and commercial use from agricultural use. Residential and commercial users

receive uninterrupted power supply, but agricultural users receive 8 hours of full voltage supply

at off-peak hours. This was coupled with a large-scale watershed development programme for

groundwater recharge. As a result, the power subsidy reduced, the groundwater table stabilized

and rural non-agricultural users benefited from improved power supply.

15Mihir Shah (2013) “Water: Towards a Paradigm Shift in the Twelfth Plan”, Economic and Political Weekly, 48

(3): 40–52.

16 Directorate of Economics and Statistics, (DAC) Adapted from Figure 1.14, State of Indian Agriculture 2011–12,

online available from http://agricoop.nic. in/sia111213312.pdf, (Accessed on 7/2/2013)

High Costs of Cultivation and Mechanization

Dependence on hired labour and mechanized cultivation is increasing with commercial farming

which, in turn, is raising the cultivation costs. That the cost of irrigation, both fixed investment

and operating costs, is a factor that led to an agrarian crisis that resulted in thousands of farmer

suicides in various parts of India is well documented.17 Debt undertaken for financing costly

deep submersible pumps, for instance, could have led to some farmer suicides18, particularly in

dry land areas of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, where low rainfall drives

increased dependence on groundwater.19 While in the 1970s and 1980s, increase in yields

surpassed by increases in cultivation costs, 1990s onwards yields have not kept up with increase

in costs of labour, inputs and irrigation.

Seeds: The emerging genetically modified variety of seed technology in the form of Bt

technology is mainly driven by the private corporate sector. The Bt seeds market, especially of

cotton, is flourishing in India. But there has been limited debate on long-term consequences on

health and the lack of competition in the seeds market. There is a concern that, while the Bt. gene

helps controlling destruction by a specific set of actors e.g. pests, it provides no additional

benefit to the soil by way of nutrition the way traditional agriculture does.20 Timely availability

of certified quality seeds with good yield potential continues to be a major problem. In India,

more than four-fifth of the farmers rely on farm-saved seeds leading to a low seed replacement

rate. Concerted efforts are essential in ensuring timely availability of seeds as well as increasing

the Seed Replacement Rate (SRR).

A number of reports published by the government, national and international non-governmental

organizations (NGOs), and other groups of stakeholders involved in agricultural issues in India

have focused on the relationship between Bt. Cotton and farmer suicides.21 However, a major

17 IRDR, 2012-13, op.cit 18 A. Vaidyanathan (2006) “Farmers Suicides and the Agrarian Crisis”, Economic and Political Weekly, 41 (38):

4009–13. 19 Siddhartha Mitra and Sangeeta Shroff (2007) “Farmers Suicides in Maharashtra”, Economic and Political Weekly,

42 (49): 73–77 20 A. R. Vasavi and PadminiSwaminathan (2010) “Agrarian and Rural Studies: Trends, Texts, Pedagogies and

Collaborations”, Report of the Conference-Cum-Consultation, 19–20 October National Institute of Advanced

Studies, Bangalore. 21 A. Krishnakumar (2005) “Seeds of Controversy”, Frontline 22(12). S. Sahai (2005) “The Story of Bt cotton in

India”, Gene Campaign, November. A. Nadal (2007) “Monsanto, Cereal Killer GM and Agrarian Suicides in India”,

La Jornada, January 6.

study conducted by the IFPRI found no robust quantitative data that links Bt. cotton adoption to

farmer suicides in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Evidence also shows that, in the face of

low rainfall, low output prices, inadequate institutional arrangement, and inadequate information,

cotton in general and Bt. cotton in particular could have contributed to lower farm revenues,

increasing indebtedness, and therefore indirectly to some possible cases of farmer suicides

during the peak suicide years of 2002 and 2004.

Farm Mechanization: Availability of adequate farm power is very crucial for timely farm

operations, increasing land and labor efficiency, increasing production and productivity and

reducing crop produce losses. Farm mechanization can also address the issues of scarcity of farm

labour during peak agricultural seasons like sowing and harvesting. This has become important

in light of the rise in agricultural wages in many areas due to alternate employment generated

through NREGA. The use of farm machinery is also dependent on the availability of other

infrastructural services in the rural areas.

Cold Storage: Year after year food grains rot due to inadequate storage and post-harvest

facilities, resulting in losses of about 10–20 per cent of food grains and 30–40 per cent of fruits

and vegetables.22 In order to minimize such avoidable losses, the Government of India has

introduced a number of schemes, the most important among them being the Grameen Bhandaran

Yojana (GBY) or Rural Godown Scheme, launched in 2001–02. This is the Government of

India’s largest scheme to promote private investment in warehouses. It provides a subsidy of 15–

33 per cent of the capital investment for construction and renovation of rural go downs through

NABARD and NCDC. As of March 2012, the scheme had created about 32 MMT of storage

capacity, that is, 30 per cent of the total storage capacity.

It must be kept in mind that state-specific regulations determine licensing and standards of

warehouse and cold storages. Since licenses are issued to the warehouse/cold storage itself rather

than the company, each location needs a separate license. The lack of standardization across

states also hinders operations for nationwide warehouse operators.23

22 Planning Commission, 2011 23 FICCI 2009,

A study conducted under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture has proposed a three pronged

strategy to improve supply chain infrastructure involving (i) compression of the supply–chain by

linking producers and markets; (ii) promoting processing in production catchments to add value

before the produce is marketed; and (iii) developing small-scale refrigerated chambers or cold

storage using conventional and non-conventional sources is required to reduce post-harvest

losses.

Credit and Insurance

Timely and adequate supply of credit is a basic requirement for most farmers. Access to formal

credit correlates directly with farm size. Smaller farmers, who tend to have less investible surplus

are most affected and continue to be excluded from formal credit and rely on moneylenders and

traders, while large farmers have disproportionate access to formal credit.24 Only 40 percent of

marginal farmers have access to institutional credit, whereas over two-thirds of medium and

large farmers do.

Lack of access to institutional credit is a major factor responsible for growing rural indebtedness,

particularly in the states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Most of the farmers who

committed suicide in both states had high, unpaid loans. In Maharashtra, the share of total credit

utilization going towards agriculture declined from 20.2 to 11.2 percent from 1991 to 2004.25 In

Andhra Pradesh, the share of moneylenders and other sources of credit going to agriculture is

about 68 percent.26

Even though the country’s track record of providing cheap institutional credit to its farmers is not

awe-inspiring, over the years, however, there has been a significant increase in the share of

formal financial institutions (commercial banks, RRBs and cooperatives) in the total credit

availed by cultivator households. Regional distribution of agricultural credit by commercial

banks, both in terms of quantum of credit and the number of accounts, has been skewed. There is

a significant concentration in the southern states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil

24 IRDR, 2012-13, op.cit 25S. Mishra (2006) “Suicide of farmers in Maharashtra”, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. 26 Ibid

Nadu) followed by the northern and western states. In contrast, the share of the eastern (Bihar,

Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal) and the north-eastern states has been low.27

Several factors impede extension of credit to farmers ranging from credit risk and collateral

requirements to cumbersome loan appraisal and documentation procedures. Many of the

impediments raise the transaction costs to both farmers and banks, some of them prohibitively.

One innovation to mitigate transactions costs and smoothen credit delivery is the Kisan Credit

Card (KCC), a revolving credit with appraisal required only the first time it is issued. All

farmers, including tenant farmers, oral lessees, SHGs, and Joint Liability Groups are eligible to

apply. Launched in 1999, it has progressively expanded to reach over 20 million farm

households. Other than this, several policy measures were introduced to step up credit to farmers.

Whether these measures increased the share of institutional credit would only be known when

the next All-India Debt and Investment Survey are out.

The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) has been introduced in the country from

seasons as one such policy measure. It is the world’s largest crop insurance program with 25

million farmers insured and it is also the chief crop insurance program in the country and in

states and union territories that choose to participate. Insurance for food crops, oilseeds and

selected commercial crops is compulsory for all farmers that borrow from financial institutions

and is voluntary for non-borrowing farmers without loans. However, the NAIS is not without its

challenges, most notably the open-ended and highly variable fiscal exposure for state and central

government, significant delays in the settlement of the farmers’ claims, and dependence on an

inefficient crop yield estimation process.

Growth of Non-Farm Employment

In 1961, the percentage of the workforce in agriculture was 75.9 percent. While the number

decreased to 59.9 percent in 1999-2000 (NCF) but agriculture still provides the bulk of

employment in the rural areas. The structural change in workforce that is marked feature of all

economies in transition is occurring in India at a much slower pace. None the less, in the last

couple of decades, there has been considerable growth of rural non-farm employment. The

27 Ministry of Agriculture.

number of households that depend on rural non-farm employment (RNFE) as their primary

source of income has increased from nearly 32 percent in 1993–94 to over 42 percent.

Shrinking farm sizes, increasing cultivation costs and declining returns have been pertinent

factors in the growth of non-farm employment. Surveys show that cultivators are losing interest

in agriculture because it is not profitable or too risky (NSSO 2005). The Census 2011 reports

fewer cultivators than a decade ago in almost all states (with Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam,

Himachal Pradesh and some of the north-eastern states being exceptions).

Chand28 (1996) argues that higher incomes increase demand for products and services, which

lead to increased non-farm employment. RNFE also has other ‘pull’ factors. Urban growth, for

example, increase in the demand for labour which rural workers meet, either by short-term

migration or daily commuting with uneducated and unskilled groups.

An important consequence of these changes has been a gradual breakdown of the traditional

hierarchies of cultivators and indebted labour. Former agricultural labourers, many of whom are

from Scheduled Castes have switched to non-farm casual work in large numbers which has given

them social mobility. With the proliferation of family farms, and rising agricultural wages, the

demand for labour is also declining.29

Database and Sampling:

The present study is based on a primary survey of 5350 farmer households across 18 major states

of India. The survey was conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS),

Delhi between December 2013 and January 2014. The sampled households were spread over 274

villages across 137 district of the country. The survey has been conducted on the basis of multi-

level sampling techniques at different administrative layers on the basis of Primary Census

Abstract, Census of India. All urban areas as per Census 2011 have been purposively excluded

since majority of Indian farmers reside in rural areas.

28 Ramesh Chand (1996) “Agricultural Diversification and Farm and Non-Farm Employment in Himachal

Pradesh”, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 39 (4): 841–50. 29 Ibid

Only rural areas defined by the Census of India during census operations of 2011 have been

considered as a universe for the sampling. For the selection of the household, target household

has been defined as any household which is dependent on agriculture sector. Individuals engaged

as cultivators or agricultural labourers were considered as target population for the survey. Major

states were further defines as states having more than more than 3 million agricultural workers

(Census, 2011). However, the state of Kerala and Himachal Pradesh were purposefully included

for understanding the state of farmers in the hilly and mountainous regions (Himachal Pradesh)

and regions with high human development (Kerala).

Table 1.1: State Level Sampling

S. No. State No of Agricultural Surveyed District Tehsil/ Sample per

All India

Rural India

Major States

Districts

Blocks/Tehsils

Village

Farm Household

Worker

(in Million)*

Household Village Thousand

agricultural worker

1 Uttar Pradesh 37.4 714 19 38 52

2 Maharashtra 24.9 479 13 26 52

3 Bihar 24.8 452 12 24 55

4 Andhra Pradesh 22.4 426 11 22 53

5 Madhya Pradesh 21.2 423 11 22 50

6 Rajasthan 18.1 360 9 18 50

7 West Bengal 14.8 277 7 14 53

8 Karnataka 13.1 280 7 14 47

9 Tamil Nadu 12.3 264 6 12 47

10 Gujarat 11.7 241 6 12 49

11 Odisha 10.6 242 6 12 44

12 Chhattisgarh 8.8 197 5 10 45

13 Jharkhand 8.1 215 5 10 38

14 Assam 5.8 145 4 8 40

15 Haryana 3.8 154 4 8 25

16 Punjab 3.3 151 4 8 22

17 Kerala 1.7 159 4 8 11

18 Himachal Pradesh 2.2 171 4 8 13

All India 248.7 5350 137 274 46

Note: Number of agricultural worker has been calculated by adding workers engaged as Cultivators and Agricultural

Labour

Source: Primary Census Abstract, 2011 # Representation of Hilly States

To represent agriculture scenario of the entire state, at least four districts from each state have

been covered in the study. To capture diversity of farmers within the district, household from

two different localities has been incorporated in the study. Likewise, the critical number of

sample farmer households was fixed at 40 households from each district. Our objective was to

keep sampling weight uniform to the maximum extent across the states but since, our resources

were not allowing moving beyond 5500 sample, an attempt has been done to distribute this

number across the sample states to the maximum extent. By making adjustment for geographical

representation, finally it was decided to conduct survey in the 137 districts spread over 18 states

of India.

To select sample district, systematic random sampling techniques has been done among the

array of agricultural labour in the districts in the states. Again, two Tehsils/Blocks/Taluka were

selected on the basis of systematic random sampling techniques among the list of array of

agricultural labour Tehsils/Blocks/Taluka in the district. For the selection of sample village, we

excluded all the villages of the Tehsils/Blocks/Taluka where number of total household was less

than 150 as per Census 2001 data and then randomly selected a village in the sample

Tehsils/Blocks/Taluka

Finally, respondent farmer household were selected from each of the 274 sample villages by

using the Systematic Random Method from the updated electoral rolls of the village. If there

were three or more polling stations in then two polling stations were selected. Each polling

station got half weightage. A universe of 30 farmers household was prepared from the electoral

roll. Field investigators approached all 30 households to select 20 farmer households from the

village. The interview was conducted face to face at the place of residence of the respondent

using a standard structured questionnaire in the language spoken and understood by him/her. A

total of 8220 randomly selected electors were approached for household interviews of which

5350 interviews were successfully completed. Women respondent comprise 16.7 per cent of the

sample household. 19.8 percent of the sample consists of Scheduled Caste respondents and 11.9

per cent is made up of Scheduled Tribes (Adivasi) whereas Other Backward Class (OBCs) has

43.0 percent sample. Non-Hindu farmer respondents constitute 13.5 per cent of the sample

household.

Table 1.2 Sample Profile

Category Proportion of the sample (In Percent)

Women 16.7

Scheduled Caste 19.8

Scheduled Tribe 11.9

Other Backward Class (OBC) 43

Non Hindu Farmers 13.5

An attempt was made to understand the voice of the youth and women from farming households.

After the main interview, the investigator interviewed a female member and/or a young member

(18-21 years) of the household. . To understand the view of youth and female, we separately

designed structured questionnaire to know their viewpoint on the state of Indian farmers. There

are 2114 youth responses which have been reported in the survey. In case of female responses,

the size of the sample was 4298. In this way,

On the basis of the responses, sample households have been defined as large farmer if they own

more than 10 acres of land. Land holding between 4 acre and 9.99 is classified as medium

farmer. Famers with less than four acres of land ownership are called small and marginal

farmers. The households which reported cash tenancy or share-cropping have been defined as

tenant farmers.

Chart 1:- Sample Distribution By Land Ownership

To understand the regional picture of the study, sample states have been divided into five zones.

North Zone constitutes states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Four

southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala form the South Zone.

Eastern Zone clubs the states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Central Zones has been

created by considering states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Western India has

been represented in the study by considering Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

It is clear from table 2 that sample has been widely distributed in the country.

Table 1.3: Distribution of Household Sample across Geographical Regions

Farmer

Household

Youth Respondent Female

Respondent

Landless farmers

13%

Marginal Farmers

43%

Small farmers

22%

Big Farmers

22%

Sample Distribution By Land Owenrship

North 1190 633 1026

East 1116 277 946

Central 835 432 731

South 1129 399 756

West 1080 375 839

Total 5350 2116 4298

Research Objectives

The main objectives of the study are as follows:

• To study the farming practices and occupational preferences among farmers.

• To investigate the reasons for agrarian distress and farmer suicides.

• To measure the level of awareness of institutional development of agriculture.

• To understand the political preferences and choices of farmers.

• To assess the effectiveness of government agricultural policies for farmers.

• To study the attitudes and opinions of farmers on key issues related to farming.

• To facilitate policy formulation on the status of farmers and farming practices.

Major Research Questions:

The study primarily tries to investigate the following questions:

• Do farmers like farming? What is the main reason for liking and disliking it?

• How do the farmers perceive agriculture as an occupation?

• What is the biggest problem faced by Indian farmers today?

• What is the nature of tenancy? Is it cash tenancy or share-tenancy prevailing among

Indian farmers?

• What is the extent of awareness and benefit of farmer welfare schemes in the opinion of

the farmers?

• Are Indian farmers aware of modern farming practices like genetically modified crops,

crop insurance etc.?

• How do the Indian farmers rate their overall condition?

Limitation of the Study:

This study is quite different from earlier studies on the situation assessment of Indian farmers as

it doesn’t focus on the quantitative data on agricultural land use, area, yield and production of

various crops or statistics related to farm input and institutional factors of Indian agriculture.

This study is limited to the perception of farmer households about the state of Indian farmers and

farming practices and has limited focus on a wide variety of activities like horticulture, animal

husbandry, poultry farming etc which are considered within the ambit of agriculture. Hence, the

results of this survey might not match with many official statistics on Indian agriculture.

CHAPTER 2

INDIAN FARMER: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE

visualizing an Indian farmer two images are drawn in one’s mind – one of a skinny man holding

a spade or ploughing a field with a pair of bullock; and the other of a prosperous farmer driving a

tractor in his lush green field. The adjectives used to describe the first image connote various

aspects of Indian agriculture like poverty, patriarchy and traditional implements like spade,

plough and old techniques like bullock driven ploughs. On the other hand, the second picture

depicts a rich farmer using new technologies and better implements. To know the real state of

Indian farmers one needs to look at their social and economic profile. Therefore this chapter uses

survey data to sketch a brief outline of the profile of Indian farmers.

A clear reflection of the patriarchal nature of the Indian society is that as many as 83 percent of

the households in our survey were headed by males. Interestingly, there is a regional pattern in

the remaining 17 percent households which were headed by female members. The proportion of

female headed households was slightly higher in South India. In fact in Kerala, almost 41 percent

of the households were headed by female members. The reason for this could be the matriarchic

and matrilineal nature of Kerala society where head of the family is a woman.

Chart 2.1: Women headed farming household across zones

Note: All figures are in percentage.

However females associate with agriculture in different ways, mainly during the time of sowing,

weeding and harvesting. A study shows that rural Indian women are extensively involved in

agricultural activities. However the nature and extent of their involvement can vary. The form of

female participation in agricultural production varies with the landowning status of farm

households. Their roles range from managers to landless labourers. In over all farm production,

women’s average contribution is estimated at 55 to 66 percent of the total labour.30 Another

study shows that in the Indian Himalayas a pair of bullocks works 1064 hours, a man 1212 hours

and a woman 3485 hours in a year on a once hectare farm. This figure illustrates significant

contribution by women in agricultural production in some areas.31

In the current survey also, 66 percent of the surveyed farmers admitted that women from their

household are also involved in farming. Not only women but school going children also get

involved in farming. In the survey, 21 percent of the farmers said that their school going children

are involved in the farming (Table 2.1).

Table 2.1: Involvement of other family members in farming

30 Online available at http://ncw.nic.in/pdfreports/impact%20of%20wto%20women%20in%20agriculture.pdf

(Accessed on 10/06/2014) 31 Vandana Shiva (1991) “Most Farmers in India are Women” FAO, New Delhi.

80

8791

7884

20

139

23

16

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

North East Central South West

Male Female

Percentage involved

Female members of household involved in farming 66

Children of household involved in farming 21

It is interesting to note that women from the families having big landholding are more engaged in

agricultural work. As Chart 2.2 shows, that women are engaged in agricultural work in 42

percent of landless households and 74 percent of big farmer households.

Chart 2.2: Women participation in farming


Farming as an Occupation:

A large number of people in the country are engaged in agriculture and consider it to be their

primary or secondary occupation. Time series data from Registrar General of India shows that

rural population has decreased from 82.7 percent in 1951 to 68.8 percent in 2011. There has been

a decline in the share of cultivators in the population from 49.9 percent in 1951 to 33 percent in

42

69 6974

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Landless Small Farmer Medium Farmer Big farmer

2011. On the other hand the share of agricultural labourers has risen over the years as seen in

Table 2.2.

Tables 2.2: Composition of workers in Rural India: 1951-2011

Year Rural Population Cultivator Agricultural Labourers Other Worker

1951 82.7 49.9 19.5 30.6

1961 82.0 52.8 16.7 30.5

1981 76.7 37.8 22.7 39.5

1991 74.3 35.2 23.8 41.0

2001 72.2 31.7 26.7 41.6

2011 68.8 33.0 39.3 27.7

Note: All figures are in percent.Source: Registrar General of India, New Delhi.

8 out of every ten farmers said that they do farming because it is their ancestral occupation and

they have spent their whole life in villages doing farming. Agriculture is their main occupation

and they are dependent on it for their household income.

Only 32 percent of the farmers are engaged in other occupations also. However, around 58

percent of the farmers who had a secondary occupation were engaged in activities which were

indirectly related to farming (Chart 2.3).

Chart 2.3: Occupation apart from farming

9

8

4

6

10

58

6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Professional

Big or Small Business

Service Workers

Skilled Labourer

Unskilled Labourer

Agriculture Related Work

Other Occupations


Farmers are mainly dependent on agriculture for their household income. As Table 2.3 shows, as

much as 78 percent of the farmers depend on agriculture for their household income. Some of are

dependent on alternate sources like services, businesses and other work.

Table 2.3: Main Source of Income of farming household

Percent

Agriculture 78

Service 5

Business 5

Other Work 11

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest did not respond.

Why farming as an Occupation?

The 59th NSS on Situation Assessment Study of Farmer, 2003 stated that 60 percent of Indian

farmers stated that they did farming because they liked it. Some on the other hand do it as a

compulsion as they do not have any alternate occupation. The survey showed that more than

three fourth of the surveyed farmers liked farming (Chart 2.4).

Chart 2.4: Three fourth of the farmers like farming

Like

72%

Dislike

22%

No Opinion

6%

When they were further probed why they like farming, 6 out of 10 said that they liked it because

it is their traditional occupation. 15 percent said that they felt proud to be a farmer while an equal

proportion of farmers (10 percent) either enjoyed farming or prefer it because of the income

(Chart 2.5).

Chart 2.5: Reasons for like farming

As our findings indicates that 2 out every 10 farmers do not like farming as an occupation, we

tried to understand the reasons behind disliking farming. The main reason was low income as 36

percent of the farmers stated that they cannot earn a good income from farming. Other than this,

18 percent stated family pressure and 16 percent felt that agriculture had no future. Some

expressed their wish to do some other job and some highlighted risky and stressful nature of the

occupation as a reason (Chart 2.6).

Chart 2.6: Reasons for disliking farming

Proud to be

farmer

15%

Traditional

occupation

60%

Good Income

10%

Enjoy

farming

10%

Other

5%

36

16

9

18

8

13

Not good income

No future

Wish to do another job

Had family pressure

Highly stressfull/risky

Other

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Note: All the figures are in percentage.

Who are the farmers who do not like farming? Data indicates that it is primarily young farmers

who dislike farming. As Table 2.4 shows that there is a clear relationship between age and

opinion about farming.

Table 2.4: Opinion about farming among Young Farmers

Like Farming Dislike farming

Up to 25 yrs 63 26

26-35 yrs 68 25

36-45 yrs 71 23

46-55 yrs 76 19

56 yrs. and above 76 19

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest did not express their opinion.

Inhabitation of the farmers:

Around 83 percent of the farmers reported that they had been living in the same village since

birth. This highlights limited spatial mobility among farmers. (Table 2.5).

Table 2.5: 8 out of 10 living at their current place by birth

Since when have you been living at your current location Percent

Upto 10 years 3

11 to 20 years 4

More than 20 years 10

Since Birth 83

There is little variation in the kind of house in which most farmers stay. 73 percent of the

interviewed farmers lived either Kutcha or mixed houses. 18 percent live in pucca independent

house whereas only 9 percent live in huts (Chart 2.7).

Chart 2.7: Type of house farmers live

As Table 2.6 reveals, that those who reside in huts and Kutcha houses are mainly landless

farmers. Whereas the big farmers primarily stay in either mixed houses or pucca independent

houses.

Table 2.6: Type of houses farmers live

Hut Kutcha house Mixed House Pucca independent

house

Landless farmers 16 36 37 10

Marginal Farmers 10 30 43 17

Small farmers 6 29 48 18

Big Farmers 3 20 47 31

Note: All figures are in percent.

Social Class of Indian Farmers:

Hut

9%

Kutcha

29%

Mixed house

44%

Pukka

Independent

House

18%

We tried to classify the farmer into different categories based on their landholding. We found

that 14 percent of the farmers are landless and mainly work as agricultural labourers. A large

proportion (48%) of farmers are marginal farmers holding up to 2 acres of land. A farmer having

3 to 5 acres of land is defined as a small farmer and in the study, 24 percent of the farmers fell in

this category. In our classification we described a farmer having more than 5 acres as a big

farmer and they constituted 14 percent of the surveyed farmers (Chart 2.8). We

Chart 2.8: Farmers with Landholdings

Economic class is closely related to the social group of individuals in India. The surveyed

farmers belong to different caste groups. Chart 2.9 deciphers the caste and community profile of

farmers. We find that they are mainly Hindu OBCs (38%), Upper caste Hindus (20%) and Hindu

Scheduled Castes (20%). Only 8 percent and 3 percent of the farmers are Muslims and Sikhs

respectively.

A reflection of historical disadvantage is the fact that is the farmers from schedule caste groups

who have no land. As Table 2.7 shows that 27 percent scheduled castes farmers are landless and

only 6 percent scheduled caste are big farmers. When we tried to look at the class of farmers

belonging to the upper caste, we found that as many as 22 percent have a large landholding and

only 10 percent are landless;

Chart 2.9: Caste and Communities Indian farmers belong to

Landless

farmers

14%

Marginal

Farmers

48%

Small farmers

24%

Big

Farmers

14%


Table 2.7: Kind of farmers by their caste communities

Landless

Farmers

Marginal

Farmers

Small Farmers Big Farmers

Scheduled Caste 27 49 18 6

Scheduled Tribe 12 57 23 8

Other Backward

Class (OBC)

12 49 26 13

Others 10 44 24 22


There is an interesting regional picture if we look at the social class of Indian farmers. South

India has the largest share of landless farmers and farmers with large landholding. In East India,

the proportion of farmers having more than 5 acres of land is marginal. Only 2 percent of the

farmers in East India can be considered to be large farmers. Most of the farmers in this zone are

marginal farmers having upto 2 acres of land (Table 2.8).

Table 2.8: Regional Picture of Landholding

Zone Landless farmers Marginal Farmers Small farmers Big Farmers

20

38

20

10

4 4 31

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Hindu

Upper caste

Hindu OBC Hindu SC Hindu ST Muslim

Upper

Caste

Muslim

OBC

Sikhs Other

Minorities

North 9 53 27 11

East 16 69 13 2

Central 11 42 30 17

South 22 37 21 20

West 13 39 28 19


Tools Used in Farming:

With technological innovation, new implements have been introduced in the agricultural sector

over the years. Farmers gradually started using tractors instead of plough for ploughing their

field. In the survey we asked farmers how they ploughed their fields. Around 5 out of 10

surveyed farmers said that they used tractors for farming. 22 percent said that they use plough in

their field and 24 percent said that they use both means for ploughing their fields (Table 2.9).

Table 2.9: Tools used for ploughing

Percent

Plough 22

Tractor 48

Both 24

Others 3

My work does not require ploughing 3

We also tried to look at the regional picture of the tools used for ploughing. In Northern India 68

percent respondents said that they use tractor for ploughing their field. This shows that

agriculture in Northern India is more advanced and mechanised. On the other hand, in Central

India the main tool for ploughing was the plough. 43 percent of the farmers from the region said

that they use plough on their land (Chart 2.10).

Chart 2.10: Tractor is used more in the Northern India

Other Social Indicators of Indian farmers:

Age:

In the surveyed farmers there are 6 percent farmers who are upto 25 years old; 18 percent of

them fall in the age group of 26 to 35 years old. Rest of them are more than 36 years old.

However, we cannot neglect that one fourth of the interviewed head of the farmer households are

less than 35 years old and they are doing farming (Table 2.10).

Table 2.10: Age group of Indian Farmers

Age Group In Percent

Up to 25 yrs 6

26-35 yrs 18

36-45 yrs 25

46-55 yrs 23

56 yrs. and above 28

Education:

There is a common belief that farming does not require any formal education and farmers who

are educated want to change their occupation for better income and livelihood prospects. Survey

data shows that almost one third of the farmers are non literate; one fifth have studied upto 5th

standard and less than ten percent have completed their college education or acquired any

professional education (Table 2.11).

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70


11

21

43

12

25

68

52

24

36 36Plough

Tractor

Table 2.11: Level of Education of Farmers

Level of Education Percent

Non literate 28

Upto Primary 21

Upto Middle 18

Upto Matric 18

Upto Intermediate 9

College and above 6

Economic Situation of the farmers:

In the survey, we asked respondents about their income and assets to for assess their economic

condition. Table 2.12 shows the asset holdings of farmer household in the country. Almost 73

percent of the farmer households have mobile phones. Only 7 percent have tractors, 23 percent

have harrow, 18 percent have pumping set, 12 percent have spray machines, 6 percent have

sowing machines and 5 percent have a thresher.

Table 2.12: Assets of farming households

Asset Percent

Mobile telephone 73

Cycle 66

Television 55

Electric fan/Cooler 46

Scooters/motorcycles/mopeds 35

LPG Gas 31

Radio 23

Harrow 23

Fridge 18

Pumping Set 18

Spray Machine 12

Landline Telephone 11

Washing Machine 9

Tractor harrow 9

Tractor 7

cars 6

Solar system 6

Inverter 6

Sowing Machine 6

Generator 5

Thresher 5

Gobar Gas 4

Chart 2.11 showcases the monthly household income stated by the interviewed farmers. When

we look at the income brackets of the farmer household, 10 percent said they do not have any

income at all; 7 percent earn only Rs. 1000 per month. Most farmers lie in the third bracket –

1001 to 5000. 15 percent farmer households have a monthly income upwards of Rs. 10000.

To examine the level of poverty we tried to study the kind of ration card a farmer household has.

Government of India has introduced a scheme where in households get a ration card according to

their family income. Table 2.13 shows that 43 percent of the farmer families have APL (Above

Poverty Line) cards whereas 45 percent said that they have BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards.

Only 4 percent of them hold the Antyodaya card which is meant for poorest of the poor.

Chart 2.11: Monthly Household Income of the farmers

Note: All figures are in percent. The average income of the farmer household is Rs. 9000.

Table 2.13: Type of ration cards farmer households hold

Percent

Above Poverty Line 43

Below Poverty Line 45

Antyodaya 4

Annapurna 1

Do not have 5

Had, but lost it 1

Others 1

Table 2.14 demonstrates the purchasing capacity of the farmers. They were asked about the

frequency of buying fruits and vegetables. A variation can be noticed in buying fruits and

vegetables. Most of the farmers purchase vegetables on daily basis or two or three days in a

week, but they do not buy fruits frequently. 18 percent said they buy fruits once in a week and as

many as 46 percent rarely buy fruits.

107

51

16

8 7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

No Earning Upto 1000 Upto 5000 Upto 10000 Upto 20000 More than

20000

Table 2.14: Purchasing capacity of farmers

Fruits Vegetables

Daily 3 20

Two-three days in a week 20 33

Once in a week 18 20

Rarely 46 18

Never 9 3

Don’t buy, consume self cultivated fruits/Vegetables 4 7


Conclusion:

Most farmers practice farming because it is their ancestral occupation and they are highly

dependent on it for their household income; some feel that the income from agriculture is not

sufficient and they need to do other work for increasing their household income.

Farmers belong to different social and economic groups. There wide variations in the standard of

living among farmers and no single representative image can be drawn. An upper class and upper

caste farmer would have a higher land holding and better housing on average as compared to a

lower caste and lower class farmer.

Chapter 3: Prevailing Farming Practices

India is a diverse country with a wide range of agro-climatic conditions having 15 Agro climatic

zones and around 125 agro-ecological zones with variations in soil type, rainfall pattern,

temperature and water resources. The country has three major crop seasons namely Kharif, Rabi

and Zaid corresponding to rainy, winter and summer seasons respectively. In about six lakh

villages more than 100 food and non food crops are grown, which include cereals, pulses, fruits,

vegetables, spices, oil seeds, fibers and drugs and narcotics.

There is much evidence to show that Indian agriculture was flourishing in the pre-British period.

Several of the indigenous practices which were perfected centuries ago, such as crop rotation, the

practice of drill husbandry etc. were relatively unknown in 17th century Europe.

Due to vast socioeconomic conditions, land holding size of farmers, climates and prevailing

traditions of the area, etc. various cultivation practices viz. shifting cultivation, nomadic

pastoralism, continuous farming, mixed or intercropping have been and are being practiced in

different parts of the country. With advances in crop husbandry knowledge and influence of

market forces a new concept of contract farming is also being practiced. Many farmers have now

moved from subsistence farming to commercial farming and are using high cost inputs like farm

machinery, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Thus it is imperative to have variations in crop

growing practices across India. In this section the farming practices of the Indian farmers like

type of farming, crop types grown, cropping intensity, crop rotation followed and various

agronomic practices followed have been discussed.

Crops Grown:

The choice of crop in a region depends on a variety of factors. Basically choice is a function of

climate, soil, input resources available, economic condition and requirement, food habits,

connectivity, proximity to urban areas, shelf life of produce, farmers risk bearing ability, literacy

level of the region, etc.

These factors singly or in various combinations results in regionalization of crops, which is

illustrated by Wheat belt in Northern India, Sorghum belt in Western India, Rice belt in Southern

India, etc Wheat is the main crop in North India during winters and rice is grown round the year

in south India. Similarly, Sorghum is main crop of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

Pearl millet (Bajra) dominate in Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, introduction and acceptance of

new crop in a region also continues simultaneously. These factors vary with change in

geography. Our study also indicates in the same direction.

The findings suggest that about half of the farmers surveyed grew two crops in year. The second

crop is grown during Rabi season during which availability of water for irrigation is critical. It is

in line with the findings as our data also shows that most farmers in assured irrigation areas

(Haryana - 90%, Punjab - 66%) having canal network are growing two crops in an year.

One-fourth of the Indian farmers grow only one crop in a year. This practice is prevalent

specifically in states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Karnataka which are mainly

dependent on rains for meeting the water requirement for crops.

The diversity of Indian agriculture it reflected by the fact that about one fourth of our farmers

also take three crops during a year. Three can be grown in areas where there is sufficient soil

moisture available during all the crop seasons either through rains or through irrigation. This is

evident by the fact that every third farmer in Punjab, where we know about the availability of

assured irrigation through river canals and bore wells, grew grow three crops,. More number of

farmers in Uttar Pradesh (40%), Jharkhand (40%) and Madhya Pradesh (37%) are also growing 3

crops in a year.

Table 3.1: No. of crops grown by farmers in a year

In Percent

One 26

Two 46

Three 24

More than three 4

Regional differences in number of crops grown is not significantly evident in the study findings

except for the north zone, in which only about 4 percent farmers reported to grow only one crop

in a year and 33 percent of farmers grow three crops in a year as is reflected in the table 2.2. This

can be mainly attributed to the presence of assured irrigation in the zone.

Table 3.2: Percentage of farmers according to the number of crops grown per year

Zone One crop Two crops Three crops

North 4 58 33

East 37 39 20

Central 22 42 31

South 42 34 21

West 27 56 15

All India 26 46 23

Note: All figures in percent

About 40 percent of the farmers surveyed grew paddy as the first crop and 28 percent grew

wheat as the second crop, which confirms the dominant Rice-Wheat cropping system followed in

the country. The cropping system followed also reflects the eating habits of the region as is

reflected by the fact that 60 percent respondents from south zone grew paddy as the first crop

and none of them grew wheat as the second crop. However, about 30 percent of the farmers in

Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are cultivating Paddy as the second crop. The reason for

choosing paddy as the second crop could be the activity of monsoon in those states

corresponding to the second Paddy growing period. Substantial percent of respondent farmers in

states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra grew paddy as

the third crop of the year.

Table 3.3: Farmers growing Paddy as the third crop in a year

Zone In Percent

North 12

East 2

Central 0

South 22

West 6

All India 8

Our data shows that Rice-Wheat cropping system is followed by a majority of Indian farmers,

particularly in northern parts of India viz. Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. This

system has been cemented not only due to development of responsive varieties but also due to

availability of irrigation facility. Besides, rice and wheat, nearly 4 percent farmers also grow

cotton as first crop. Besides Cotton, Sugarcane is also reported to be grown by 3 percent of the

farmers as first crop and by 2 percent as second crop.

Majority of the farmers grow paddy during Kharif and wheat during Rabi as is evident from the

table below, which confirms the Rice-Wheat cropping system followed by majority of farmers.

Other important crops grown are Bajra, Maize, Soybean and Cotton during Kharif and Gram

during Rabi season.

Table 3.4: Which crops do farmers mainly grow?

Crop In Percent

Paddy 41

Wheat 21

Bajra 5

Maize 4

Gram 4

Sugarcane 2

Soybean 2

Cotton 3

Other 18

Sugarcane is an important crop grown in the country as it is primarily used for the production of

sugar. Since it is a long duration crop, requiring about nine months to year and a half for

maturing, it is primarily sown once a year in a field. Its cultivation is mainly concentrated in

western and northern parts of the country. Our data indicates that most of the farmers growing

sugarcane either as first or second crop of the year belong to either Maharashtra in the west or

Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the north.

Table 3.5: Regional distribution of sugar cane growing farmers

Zone As first crop As second crop

North 46 53

East 0 0

Central 0 14

South 2 6

West 52 27

Note: All figures are in percent

Choice of Seed:

Choice of seed by is the most important decision that a farmer takes as it affects the production

level of the grown crop and determines the yield potential of the crop under optimum agronomic

conditions. Choice of seed depends on the availability of assured irrigation, credit facility and

market for the produce.

In Indian context with low literacy rates among farming community understanding of seed type

may not be high enough to differentiate between hybrid and high yielding seeds. The

respondents may have clubbed high yielding seed with hybrid seed. The use of hybrid seed is

more common in vegetable crops rather than cereals, pulses or oilseeds. The survey data thus

needs to be understood with this background.

Table 3.6: Kind of seeds used by farmers

Type of Seeds In Percent

Local seeds 70

Hybrid seeds 63

Foreign seeds (GM) 4

Other 1

Major chunk of farmers use local or traditional seeds, while a large portion also uses hybrid

seeds. 70 percent of Indian farmers have reported using local seeds, while 63 percent reported

using use hybrid seeds. However, GM seeds are used by very few farmers in India.

Table 3.7: Farmers using types of seed for farming

Zone Traditional seed Hybrid seed

North 77 68

East 76 56

Central 80 60

South 59 61

West 62 68

All India 70 63


It is evident from the above table that although more than two third of farmers are using

traditional seeds, farmers using hybrid seeds are not far behind across the country. Farmers may

be using both traditional as well as hybrid seeds depending on the crop and resources available

with them.

Although, traditional seeds are being used by more than three quarter of farmers in central zone

of the country, farmers of this zone are not far behind ii using hybrid seeds. In eastern zone use

of hybrid seeds has been adopted by a relatively lower proportion of farmers, still it must be

noted that more than half the farmers have used hybrid seeds. It clearly shows that use of high

yielding seeds, if not hybrid seeds, has become popular in the country.

Table 3.8: State wise proportion of farmers using traditional seed for farming

State Traditional seed

Karnataka 93

Punjab 87

Madhya Pradesh 84

Assam 83

Orissa 83

Chhattisgarh 82

Kerala 77

Bihar 73

Gujarat 73

West Bengal 72

All India 70


The use of hybrid seeds is generally more by farmers growing vegetable crops by those who

have resources for high input cost farming. The popularity of hybrid seed may be attributed to

increased demand for vegetables throughout the country, although there is no data to supplement

it. A state wise analysis shows that Punjab and Gujarat have the highest proportion of farmers

using hybrid seeds. A reason behind this in Gujarat could be the popularity of hybrid seeds for

the production of cotton which is a dominant crop in the state.

Table 3.9: State wise proportion of farmers using hybrid seed for farming

State Hybrid Seeds

Punjab 82

Gujarat 81

Karnataka 77

Jharkhand 76

Madhya Pradesh 75

Rajasthan 73

Haryana 73

Bihar 71

All India 63

The use of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds in India is not common. Only 4 percent of the

respondent farmers were generally using GM seeds. There seems to a pattern in the use of GM

seeds in the category of farmers. There is a relationship between the use of GM seeds and

landholding. Use of GM seeds increases with the landholding of the farmer.

Table 3.10: Farmers generally using GM seeds

Farmer Group In Percent

Landless 2

Marginal 3

Small 5

Big 8

All farmer 4

Farmer class wise pattern for the use of hybrid seed follow the same trend, although unlike GM

seeds, these seeds are used by a large number of farmers across their class. Maximum number of

farmers under marginal category use traditional seeds, which is as high as 77 percent followed by

small and big farmers.

Table 3.11: Farmers generally using traditional and hybrid seeds

Farmer group Traditional seed Hybrid seed

Landless 42 39

Marginal 77 61

Small 74 69

Big 70 84

All farmer 70 63


A substantial number of farmers with assured irrigation facility in their area use hybrid or GM

seeds. Our data shows that for irrigation they rely on either canal, Government tube wells or own

bore wells, which is evident by the fact that 70 percent of the farmers who have their own bore

wells used hybrid seeds. This is higher than the proportion of farmers did not own a bore well

and were using hybrid seeds. Similar trend is also observed for the use of GM seed with

percentage of farmers at 5 and 3 respectively. Every tenth farmer having sprinkler irrigation

present in his area is using GM seed. This reflects the fact that farmers generally understand the

importance of irrigation while using high yield potential seeds.

The survey data shows that the impact of minimum support price (MSP) on the choice of seed

type is minimal on the farmers. The data reveals that there is no significant difference between

numbers of farmers who have heard about MSP and those who have not heard, using traditional

seed. However, it seems that MSP has an impact on the use of hybrid seed. This may be because

MSP has influence on choice of crop rather than choice of seed they use for any crop.

Table 3.12: Farmers using various type of seed vis-à-vis Minimum Support Price (MSP)

About MSP Traditional Seeds Hybrid Seeds GM Seeds

Heard 70 71 5

Not Heard 73 60 4


Most of the farmers believe that hybrid seeds are more profitable. More than one third of the

farmers said that hybrid seeds increase production and the profits, while less than one third said

that both local and hybrid seeds are profitable.

Table 3.13: Hybrid seed are more profitable for farmer

Percent of farmers

Local 18

Hybrid 36

Both 32

Can’t say 14

Influence of available market for produce on choice of seed type:

Choice of seed is also influenced by the availability of market for their produce. Our data reveals

that every fourth farmer who uses traditional seeds sell his produce at Government purchase

centres, while the number increases slightly in case of hybrid seeds, it increases to about every

second farmer in case of GM seeds.

Table 3.14: Farmers using various type of seed vis-à-vis selling produce at Government

purchase centers.

In Percent

Traditional Seeds 26

Hybrid Seeds 28

GM Seeds 49

Nearly half the farmers using GM seeds sell their produce in the open market/mandi. It comes

down to 33 percent for farmers using hybrid or traditional seed. Selling of farm produce through

middlemen is still an option for a sizable number of farmers. Nearly one in five farmers using

traditional or hybrid seed sell their produce through the middle man, but for GM seeds, it comes

down to nearly one in every ten farmers. A substantial number of farmers sell their produce

through Bazar Samiti or APMC. Thus it is evident that market availability for the produce

significantly influences the farmer in selecting the seed type they use for crop production.

Table 3.15: Farmers using various type of seed vis-à-vis channel of their sale of produce.

Channel Traditional Seed Hybrid Seed GM Seed

In Open Market 33 33 48

Through Middle Man 19 22 12

Through Both Above 9 9 6

Through Bazar Samiti/APMC 4 5 12

Irrigation and its Source:

Irrigation has been practiced in India since Vedic period. The earlier attempts to provide

irrigation were mainly confined to using flood water of rivers. In course of time, channels were

dug to convey flood waters to long distances. Simultaneously, methods for using subsoil water

were also developed.

The major use of water in the country is for irrigation and is likely to continue in future also. The

sources of irrigation in India are rivers, tanks and wells of various types. Irrigation may be

referred to the supply of water from rivers, ponds, tanks, bore wells, canals and other artificial

sources for the purpose of crop cultivation. About 64 percent of cultivated land in the country is

dependent on monsoons. Major parts of the country are still rain-fed, where rains are the only

source of water available for crops. Availability of assured irrigation has direct impact on crop

husbandry practices and the economic stability of the farmers.

Indian farmers have been using river water for irrigating crops since time immemorial as our

country is blessed with numerous river systems, which can mainly be grouped into perennial

river system of Himalayan Rivers and Peninsular Rivers.

The availability of regular irrigation during crop season particularly Kharif and Rabi is

influenced by the sources of irrigation present in the region. Canal network originating from

perennial rivers assures the farmers of water availability for crops. The canal as a source of

irrigation is available to about half the farmers from north, where as it is available only to about

one third of the farmers from other zones. The good network of canals in north may be attributed

to the availability of water in large number of perennial rivers present and plain topography of

the region, which makes canal construction and its maintenance easier.

Table 3.16: Presence of canals in farmer area

Zone In Percent

North 49

East 28

Central 36

South 44

West 32

All India 38

The availability of assured irrigation to majority of farmers in north India through canals and self

owned bore wells stimulates growing rice-wheat cropping system. Canal availability might also

be helping farmers in south to go for rice-rice cropping system, which is evident by the fact that

about 63 percent farmers in Andhra Pradesh have access to canal irrigation.

Apart from canals, water from bore wells is the important source of irrigation. Open wells have

been in use since long. At the end of 19th century, a little less than a third of the total area under

irrigation was under open wells mostly confined to rich alluvial tracts. Subsequently

considerable area was brought under irrigation through tube wells. Throughout the country

majority of the farmers own bore well. The North zone has the highest proportion (57%) of

farmers who own bore wells while the west zone has the least (37%). Farmers also irrigate their

crops through Government tube wells present in their area. Every third farmer field has access to

Government tube well in the north. However, only 8 percent of farmers from central zone and 12

percent from western zone have access to government tube wells.

One can conclude that north zone has high density of tube well for irrigating the crop. The high

density of tube wells may be due to shallow water table present in the area under the influence of

so many perennial rivers present.

Table 3.17: Farmers having access to tube wells/bore wells.

Zone Own bore well Govt. tube well

North 57 30

East 48 20

Central 41 8

South 42 16

West 37 12

All India 45 18


Presence of ponds in an area is also significant for supplementing water requirement during long

break of the monsoon during Kharif and irrigating crops in the vicinity as per requirement. Our

data reveals that ponds are rare in Haryana and Punjab, both of which have good canal system

and high density of tube wells. In southern states a fairly good percentage of farmers have a pond

in their vicinity and in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh every second farmer has a pond in his area.

Very few farmers in Rajasthan have a pond in their area, which may be due to arid to the semi

arid climate in most parts of the state.

Table 3.18: Farmers having pond in their area.

Zone In Percent

North 21

East 31

Central 43

South 32

West 24

All India 30


Wells have remained an important source of irrigation in India. Due to increased uplift of ground

water through bore/tube wells under high intensity crop cultivation, ground water table has gone

down in most parts of the country, leading to drying up of most wells. However, they are present

all across the country. About 61 percent, 56 percent , 33 percent and 12 percent of the farmers in

the Central zone, West zone, South zone and the East zone respectively said that they had a well

in their area. Although some farmers have wells in their area, it is very difficult to believe that

wells are being used for irrigating crops in this mechanized age of pumps and tractors.

Table 3.19: Farmers having well in their area.

Zone In Percent

North 18

East 12

Central 61

South 33

West 56

All India 34


The data on availability of wells among farmers across states shows that about 90 percent

farmers in Kerala have well in their area followed by Jharkhand (72%) and Madhya Pradesh

(64%). In Haryana it drops to 2 percent, in Punjab to 7 percent and in West Bengal to 4 percent.

The reason for less farmers having well in their area in northern states of Punjab and Haryana

could be the presence of bore/tube wells in large numbers.

Table 3.20: States with majority of farmers having well in their area.

State In Percent

Kerala 90

Jharkhand 72

Madhya Pradesh 64

Rajasthan 53

Maharashtra 50

All India 34


Although initial cost of establishing sprinkler irrigation system or drip irrigation system is very

high, they are very useful in economizing the use of water used for irrigation. Besides irrigation

theses systems may also be used for supplying plant nutrients and plant protection chemicals to

crops in an effective manner. Sprinkler system of irrigation is useful in those areas where water

for irrigation is the main limiting factor for crop cultivation. Our data points that maximum

number of farmers from west reported to have sprinklers in their areas, which collaborates with

the fact that western part of our country is driest. State wise analysis also indicates the same fact

with about 36 percent of farmers in Rajasthan reported that they had a sprinkler in their area.

Table 3.21: Farmers having sprinkler in their area

Zone In Percent

North 6

East 2

Central 7

South 9

West 16

All India 8


Use of Fertilizers:

To achieve the potential yield of type of seed being sown, the nutrient content has to be optimum

in the field. The nutrient status of fields in India is deteriorating with every crop season as the

fields are not supplemented with nutrients absorbed by the crop during the crop season. Thus,

farmers need to replenish the field with nutrients every season to have good crop yields. It is

established that about sixteen mineral nutrients have been considered essential for completing the

life cycle of the plant and with continuous mining of nutrients from the field in the form of farm

harvest; additional nutrients are being deleted from the field.

Traditionally, Indian agriculture has been driven by indigenous knowledge and using locally re-

generable materials for supplementing soil fertilization, making it a sustainable ecofriendly

organic technology. The advent of the modern methods based on High Yielding Variety (HYV)

seeds and chemical fertilizer and the challenge of food grain shortages during 1960s compelled a

turn from traditional to modern crop husbandry practices. In view of changing concepts and

perceptions on market and ecology, review of the traditions is needed to work for a judicious mix

of the modern and traditional technologies for greater sustainability of development. Since

chemical fertilizer imparts greater productivity than manure that constitutes bulk of the organic

source, the shift in input mix towards organic methods may impact productivity and the returns

to farmers in the short run. A shift from the chemical based to a blend with the traditions is

environmentally beneficial over a longer time horizon but can be feasible in India only if that has

the ability to protect output levels and most importantly, the incomes of the farmers even in the

short run.

It has been estimated that as much as 50 percent of the high yield of maize and other cereals,

besides augmentation of quality and nutritional value is attributable to commercial fertilizers

used in crop production. The primary source of plant nutrients in agriculture and the natural eco

system are the natural organic and inorganic substances. Their supply is supplemented with

artificially manufactured fertilizers and organic manures as well as the bio-fertilizers in present

day agriculture.

Farmers also understand the importance of nutrients for having good yields. Organic fertilizers

contain several essential nutrients in smaller quantity and enhance the biological activity of

fields. The importance of organic fertilizers has also been recognized by the farmers surveyed;

this is reflected by the fact that more than 60 percent of the farmers surveyed use it either alone

or with chemical fertilizers. State wise analysis shows that hardly any farmer in Haryana, Punjab

and Jharkhand uses organic fertilizers. About two third of the farmers in Andhra Pradesh and

Bihar and more than half in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are using only chemical fertilizers.

South zone has the highest proportion of farmers using organic fertilizers and it is followed by

Central and West zone. This may be attributed to the cattle population in these regions.

Table 3.22: Use of fertilizers types by farmers

Zone Organic Chemical Both

North 12 40 49

East 15 55 30

Central 16 32 52

South 30 38 32

West 16 26 58

All India 18 39 44


A wide variety of reasons have been given for the use of chemical fertilizers. Every third farmer

believes that chemical fertilizer quicken the cultivation of crops, which is not the case. It is a fact

that crop life cycle is not completed faster by the use of fertilizers; rather it is a genetic character

of the crop which determines the crop duration. It is an established fact that fertilizers have a

positive impact on crop health and its productivity, however, only 13 percent of surveyed

farmers feel that chemical fertilizers have a good impact on plant growth and about one third feel

that chemical fertilizers help in good production of crops.

Table 3.23: Farmers using chemical fertilizers for quick cultivation

Zone In Percent

North 21

East 35

Central 20

South 28

West 34

All India 28


Lack of availability of organic fertilizers forces about 6 percent of the farmers to use chemical

fertilizers. Some farmers feel that chemical fertilizers are less costly and after using them crop

rotation will not be required, which is not true. A section of farmers use chemical fertilizers out

of compulsion.

Table: 3.24: Farmers using chemical fertilizers as they cheaper and can be a substitute for

crop rotation

Zone Less costly No need for

crop rotation

North 2 2

East 4 7

Central 2 1

South 1 1

West 1 4

All India 2 1


The awareness level of farmers in agriculturally dominant states like Punjab and Haryana about

the impact of chemical fertilizers is very high. The data shows that about 40 percent Haryana

farmers and 75 percent Punjab farmers know that chemical fertilizers enhance production, which

is not the case in other states. Farmers of these states are also aware that chemical fertilizers are

not a substitute for crop rotation as no farmer in these states said that there is no need for crop

rotation if chemical fertilizers are used. m

A sizable proportion of farmers feel that it is necessary to use chemical fertilizers for enhanced

crop production. This view is prevalent more in the north zone as compared to other zones. This

can be explained by the fact that chemical fertilizers do help in increasing yield in the short run.

In north the dominant rice-wheat cropping system also require abundant nitrogen, which is

supplied primarily through urea in the zone.

Table 3.25: Farmers using chemical fertilizers as a compulsion

Zone In Percent

North 12

East 5

Central 4

South 7

West 4

All India 5


Use of Pesticides:

Pesticides include a wide range of chemicals including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides,

rodenticides, molluscicides, nematicides, plant growth regulators and others. Among these,

organochlorine (OC) insecticides, used successfully in controlling a number of diseases, such as

malaria and typhus, were banned or restricted after the 1960s in most of the technologically

advanced countries. The introduction of other synthetic insecticides – organophosphate (OP)

insecticides in the 1960s, carbamates in 1970s and pyrethroids in 1980s and the introduction of

herbicides and fungicides in the 1970s–1980s contributed greatly to pest control and agricultural

output. Ideally a pesticide must be lethal to the targeted pests, but not to non-target species,

including humans.

The production of pesticides started in India in 1952 with the establishment of a plant for the

production of BHC near Calcutta. There has been a steady growth in the production of technical

grade pesticides in India. The pattern of pesticide usage in India is different from rest of the

world in general. 76 percent of the pesticides that are used in India are insecticides, as compared

to only 44 percent globally. The use of herbicides and fungicides is correspondingly lower. The

main use of pesticides in India is for cotton crops (45%), followed by paddy and wheat.

A vast majority of the population in India is engaged in agriculture and is therefore, exposed to

the pesticides used in agriculture. Indian farmers are using a wide range of chemical pesticides to

limit the losses due to pests and diseases.

With advancement in crop production technology and the release of high yielding and hybrid

varieties of crops, the use of pesticides has also increased. The traditional varieties grown were

more tolerant to pests and diseases but were less yielding. The new high yielding and hybrid

varieties are high yielding but are less tolerant to pest and diseases, thus they require use of

pesticides.

We know that use of pesticides on a large scale is detrimental to the environment. They can be

harmful for humans also if they enter the eco system. However, pesticide use cannot be stopped

because for many crops like cotton production cannot be sustained without their use. Therefore,

judicious use of pesticides is recommended.

Majority of the farmers surveyed also seems to understand the bad effects of pesticide use as the

our data shows that about one third farmer uses it only when needed, one in ten never use them

on any crop and about one third use it on some crops only. However, every fourth farmer still

uses pesticides on all crops. For a majority of farmers the reason for not using pesticides on all

crops could be either high cost or unawareness about the type of pesticide which needs to be

used for all crops.

Table: 3.26: Use of pesticides by farmers on crops

Zone All crops Some crops Not on any crop Whenever needed

North 22 41 7 30

East 27 30 10 34

Central 28 27 5 41

South 25 34 19 22

West 21 30 13 37

All India 24 33 11 32


Choice of seed also has an impact on the use of pesticides. It is known that more pesticides are

needed to grow high yielding varieties like Hybrids and GM crops since these are more

susceptible to pests and diseases than traditional varieties. The use of pesticides as reflected in

our data also confirms this opinion. Out of all the farmers using traditional seeds about 19

percent always use pesticides, where as it increases to 24 percent for hybrid seeds and 30 percent

in case of GM seeds. Similarly, 7 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent respectively never used

pesticides.

Table 3.27: Pesticide use vis-à-vis choice of seed

Pesticide use Traditional Seeds Hybrid Seeds GM Seeds

Always 19 24 30

Occasionally 29 31 25

Rarely 11 10 9

If need arises 34 30 33

Never 7 5 3


Increased number of farmers using traditional seeds uses pesticides on all crops when they use

GM seed, which is closely followed in case of hybrid seed and least number of farmers use

pesticides when they use traditional seed. This trend reverses for number of farmers not using

pesticides on any crop. It may due to due to the reason that farmers generally do not use costly

inputs while using traditional low cost seed and vice versa in case of GM seeds which are costly

and they protect the crop, and with this input cost incurred in the form of seed. The other reason

may be related to the inherent resistance associated with the crop grown from various seed types.

Table 3.28: Pesticide use vis-à-vis choice of seed

Pesticide use Traditional Seeds Hybrid Seeds GM Seeds

All crops 25 28 36

Some crops 34 35 33

Not for any crop 8 6 1

Whenever needed 33 31 30


Chapter 4-Challenges and Problems faced by Indian Farmer

Well-being of farmers cannot be achieved unless every worker in the farm sector is made

capable enough to fulfill his life responsibilities. The distress of Indian farmers stems from their

struggle to survive in the extreme working conditions in the fields. In spite of their hard work

majority of the Indian farmers are deprived of their basic minimum needs. Poor living conditions

and depression can lead farmers towards the extreme step of suicide. The objective of this

chapter is to take a look into the challenges and the problems that farmers in India face. An

attempt has been made to find out the main problems and anxieties of Indian farmers. We would

look at the different problems that farmers face and for this we have divided this chapter into

different sections. Each section will deal with different types of problems.

The first section will deal with major problems of the farmers. The second section will deal with

problems related to crop failure. Reasons for crop destruction have also been dealt in this section.

Section three captures incidence of suicides in the last five years in the village or nearby place of

residence. Anxieties among farmers about various life responsibilities like housing, marriage,

education, employment health, loan and farming related issues has been kept in section four. The

problem of selling agricultural land and its reasons are also kept in this chapter. Section five

throws light on overall condition of the famers.

1:- The Biggest Problem that Indian farmers face is related to income and Economy.

Indian farmers face many problems in their life. In this study, we wanted to know- what is the

biggest problem faced by the farmers? We asked them to express their view on the same. As a

result, we received various answers, which have been categorized into six categories.

Issues related to income and economy emerged as the biggest problem of the farmers. 18 percent

of the farmers stated this as the main problem. This problem was related to decrease in

production, depressed economy, decline in the net income, labour cost and lack of earning in the

agricultural industry (Chart 4.1). The second biggest problem for farmers came from issues

related to market such as low prices for their crops, and grains, cost of labour, price competition,

fewer customers, limited market for output, competition from large companies and unawareness

about the market competition. 13 percent of the farmers reported this problem.

Natural disasters like floods and drought, and climatic conditions like lack of moisture and poor

quality of grains due to wet weather conditions also emerges as a problem, as 10 percent reported

this as their biggest problem. 8 percent of the farmers stated irrigation and technology as the

main problem. There were other problems apart from these which were stated by farmers. For all

other farmers, problem related to income and economy emerged as the biggest problem. Table

4.1 shows the problem faced by different farmers

Chart4.1: Problems of the farmers


Table 4.1: Biggest problem faced by Indian farmers today by Household

Problems

related to

Income/

Economy

Problem

related to

Market

Problems

related to

Natural

calamity

Problems

related to loan

Problems

related to

Irrigation and

Technology

Landless farmers 11 9 7 2 6

Marginal Farmers 20 12 12 2 9

18

13

10

28

28

21

Problems related to Income/Economy

Problem related to Market

Problems related to Natural calamity

Problems related to loan

Problems related to Irigation and Technology

Others

Can't say

Small farmers 18 15 10 3 7

Big Farmers 19 18 9 1 12

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest said other problems or did not express their opinion on this question

Regional pattern on the biggest problem of the farmers did not have any uniform pattern.

Problems related to income were reported the highest from the North zone. Problems from

natural calamity like floods droughts was reported the highest from the Eastern region followed

by Central region. Problems related to irrigation and technology emerged as the biggest problem

for farmers in the Eastern and Western region.

Table 4.2: Biggest problem faced by Indian farmers today by Geographical Region

Zone Problems

related to

Income/Econ

omy

Problem

related to

Market

Problems

related to

Natural

calamity

Problems

related to

loan

Problems

related to

Irigation and

Technology

Others

North 29 12 7 0 6 31

East 17 11 19 1 14 23

Central 14 4 11 1 7 48

South 12 21 7 7 5 20

West 16 14 8 2 10 23

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest either said other problems or did not express their opinion on this question.

In the separate interviews that we conducted with youth and female members we asked them the

biggest problem that their family faces. Youth considered unemployment as the main problem

while women stated price rise as the biggest problem. For both youth and females the three most

important problems faced by their family were price rise, poverty and unemployment.

1.1:-Who is responsible for Farmers Problems?

A question that arises is that who do farmers consider responsible for their problems?

Responsibility of betterment of their life lies with the government. Since agriculture comes under

the concurrent list of the constitution, both state and central government can formulate policies

for addressing their problems. 48 percent of the farmers reported that both the central and the

state governments are responsible for current problems of the famers. Farmers who thought that

the central government was more responsible for their problem were slightly more than those

who blamed the state government.

Only the big farmers consider the state government more responsible than the central

government for their problems (Table 4.3). All others consider the central government more

responsible. Not much variation is seen in the responses, when it came to the joint responsibility

of both central and state governments.

Table 4.3: Who is responsible for the farmers’ problems

Household Type State

Government

Central

Government

Both None Farmer

themselves

Landless Farmers 13 17 42 4 2

Marginal Farmers 17 19 49 2 2

Small Farmers 15 20 53 2 1

Big Farmers 22 16 46 6 1

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest did not express their opinion on this question.

In all five zones: North (59%), East (42%), Central (41%), South (47%) and West (49%) farmers

blame both the centre and state for their problems. A closer regional analysis shows that barring

farmers from Western India, all others consider the central government more responsible. The

overall trend of responses shows a combined dissatisfaction with both the central government

and the state governments (Chart 4.2).

Chart4.2: Barring aside farmers in Western India, others blame the central government

more responsible.

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest either said both Governments, none, farmers themselves and the others did

not express their opinion on this question.

2. Problem of Crop destruction/ Failure

The destruction of crops is directly linked to the overall condition of the farmers. Crop

destruction can happen due to a variety of reasons. We tried to find out from farmers, whether

any of their crops got destroyed in the last three years. Three fourth of the farmers have reported

destruction of their crops in the last three years (Chart 4.3). However, in case of marginal

farmers, cases of crop destruction were highest (75%). 66 percent of the big farmers reported

cases of crop destruction in the last three years. What is surprising is that 57 percent of the

landless farmers also reported crop destruction.

There is quite a lot of variation in the reporting of crop destruction cases in the last three years

across all regions (Table 4.4). The East zone had the highest proportion of farmers who reported

crop destruction. It was followed by the Central zone while South seems to be least affected.

Chart 4.3: Three fourth of the farmers have faced the problems of crop destruction.

Table 4.4: Maximum crop destruction took place in the Eastern region of the country.

13

20 21

13

1815

2426

19

11

0

10

20

30


State Governmnet

Central Governmnet

70%

18%

12%

Yes

No

Can’t say

Zone Crop Destruction in the last 3 years

All India 70

East 84

Central 70

West 69

North 67

South 60

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rests are those who said no and no opinion.

Incidence of crop destruction in the last three years was the highest in Bihar followed by

Jharkhand. Punjab and Tamil Nadu emerged as frontrunners as destruction of crops was reported

the least from these states. In Punjab only 26 percent of the farmers reported crop destruction in

the last three years (Chart 4.4).

Chart 4.4: Farmers in Bihar faced the maximum crop destruction.

2.1 Reasons for Crop Failure

Looking at the causes of crop failure reported by the farmers in the sample, we came up with five

main reasons: Drought, Floods, uncertain rainfall, crop destruction by pests/ birds/animal, and

weather being either too hot or too cold and hailstorms.

A high proportion (77%) of the farmers reported natural weather conditions as the major cause

for crop failure (Chart 4.5). 28 percent of the farmers in India reported less or more rainfall as the

main reason for crop failure, followed by floods and droughts which accounted for19 percent

each. Destruction by animals, pests and birds is also a cause of concern as 12 percent farmers

stated destruction caused due to these. Excessive rainfall leads to floods whereas no or less

rainfall results into drought. Unseasonal rainfall or breaks in the monsoon has been defined as

92 90 85 81 79 79 78 77 73 71 71 68 6756

4943

38

26 Crops got

destroyed in the

last three years(%)

uncertain rainfall and it is in the Central and Northern regions, that farmers reported uncertain

rainfall as a major cause for crop failure.

The problem of crop failure due to floods is more common for farmers in the Eastern and

Southern regions. 32 percent of the farmers reported the same in Eastern Region and this figure

was 31 percent in the Southern states. Specifically in the case of crop failure due to floods, more

than half of the farmers with this problem are from the Eastern states (Chart 4.5). However, the

proportion of farmers stating droughts as their major problem is relatively more consistent in all

regions with an exception of Southern and Northern states where the percentage was

comparatively less. Crop destruction has been found as a significant cause in the Western region

where 53 percent of the farmers stated destruction caused due to pests, animals and birds as a

reason for crop failure.

Chart 4.5: Reasons of Crop Failure in the last three Years by Geographical Regions

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest are other reasons and no opinion.

3. Problems of Suicides in the Rural Areas

Incidence of suicide cases in India has been widely debated. We get to hear about many cases of

farmer suicides and this number seems to be increasing with time. We tried to probe the farmers

regarding this as it is an important issue which deserves attention. When farmers were asked if

they have any knowledge about anyone who had committed suicide in the last 5 years in their

1910

2922

921

19

20

32

5 311

28

20

8

215

9

12

20

17

2925 53

11 22

517

6

8

0

20

40

60

80

100

All India North East Central South West

Weather was very hot or

cold/Hailstorm

Crop Destruction by pests/

animal/ bird

Less or more Rainfall/Uncertain

rainfall

Floods

Drought

area, majority of respondents (73 per cent) said that they did not know about any such suicide

case in their area. 15 percent of the farmers reported that they had heard about suicides in their

area in the last 5 years. We must keep into consideration that we had asked farmers about suicide

cases within the last 5 years only (Chart 4.6).

A substantial number of the small farmers (21%) said that they knew about somebody who had

committed suicide. Among all other classes, the proportion was almost equal. Central India had

the highest proportion of farmers who knew about a suicide in their area in the last five years. 23

percent of the farmers here reported that they knew someone who had committed suicide in the

last five years. This percentage was 18 percent, 14 percent and 12 percent South, North and West

zones respectively. It was lowest in the Eastern zone (Table 4.5).

Charts 4.6: 15 percent of farmers are aware of suicides in their area in the last five years.

Table 4.5: Incidence of Suicide in the Locality by Geographical Regions

Zone Incidence of

suicides

North 14

East 9

Central 23

South 18

West 12

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rests are those who said no those who did not express their opinion on this

question.

Yes

15%

No

73%

Don't

know/Don't

know

12%

Incidence of Suicides in the Locality

A little more than half the farmers in Chhattisgarh had reported a suicide in the last five years,

(Chart 4.7). 51 percent of the farmers in the state were aware of such suicides. Chhattisgarh was

followed by Karnataka (29%). This percentage was lowest in Himachal Pradesh (1%) which was

followed by Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.

Chart 4.7: Farmers in Chhattisgarh reported the maximum number of suicides

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest had not heard about suicides in their area and those who did not express

their opinion on this question.

3.1 Reasons for Committing Suicide

We tried to probe farmers who had reported that they had heard about suicides in their area in

the last 5 years. We tried to find out the reasons for these suicides. 40 percent farmers reported

domestic problem as the most important reason for suicide (Table 4.6). Problem of credit and

loan also emerged as a major cause for suicide as 35 percent of the farmers spoke about this as

the reason for suicide. 14 percent of the respondent also raised the issue of crop destruction as a

reason of suicides.

There are many farmers who had committed suicide due to the loan they had taken. We made an

attempt to further look into the reasons for which these farmers had taken the loan? Farmers

reported that amongst those who had committed suicide because of inability to repay a loan,

most had taken the loan for farming purposes. Few farmers had taken the loan for household

purposes (12%). 6 percent of the farmers reported reasons other than farming and household

purposes.

51

29

23 2320 19 19

15 1412

6 6 64 4 3 3

1

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Chhattisgarh

Karnataka

Kerela

Maharashtra

Uttar Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

West Bengal

Andhra Pradesh

Assam

Punjab

Haryana

Orissa

Jharkhand

Bihar

Tamil Nadu

Gujarat

Rajasthan

Himachal Pradesh

Have heard about suicide in their

area in the last 5 years

Table 4.6: Causes for suicides

Causes for suicides In Percent

Family/Domestic Problem 40

Credit/Loan 35

Crop Destruction 14

Note: Rest stated other reasons.

Though domestic problems are a major cause of suicide cases at all India level, there were

regional variations also. Few farmers Southern, Northern and Western India reported domestic

problems as the main cause of suicides. 63 percent farmers from the West followed by 60

percent from South highlighted unpaid loan as the main cause of suicides. The problem of loan

also emerged as a bigger reason for suicide in the North where 35 percent farmers reported this

cause for suicide. Domestic problems of the farmers emerged as a significant reason for suicides

in Eastern and Central India (Chart 4.8).

Chart4.8: Reasons for farmers’ Suicide across Geographical Regions

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest stated other reasons.

We tried to look at the causes of suicides in Chhattisgarh where the proportion of farmers who

had reported a suicide was highest. Domestic problem emerged as the biggest reason for suicides

in Chhattisgarh as 69 percent of farmers had committed suicide in the last 5 years due to this

28

81

72

10

25

35

3

9

60

63

30

11

5

19

4

0 20 40 60 80 100

North

East

Central

South

West

Domestic Problem

Loan

Crop Failure

reason. 3 percent of the farmers here had committed it due to the loan they had taken and 27

percent of the farmer stated reasons other than loan, domestic problems and crop destruction.

4. Views on Life Responsibilities

Apart from the above problems, Indian farmers need to fulfill many responsibilities in their life.

There are different responsibilities and worries on issues related to housing, marriage in the

household, and education of children, employment and health. Financial needs and worries

related to loan etc are also a cause of worry for the farmers. What are the views of farmers over

various responsibilities? How much are they worried about fulfilling their basic life

responsibilities? The objective of this exercise was to measure the level of stress in their life to

fulfill these needs. A major stress came from the education of children as 59 percent of the

farmers reported that they are very worried about this responsibility. It was followed by farming

and employment as almost an equal number (56%) declared it as a source of worry (Chart 4.9).

Chart 4.9: Worry about Major Life Responsibilities

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest did not express their opinion on this question.

52 56 56 5945

32 26

26 24 23 2226

25 18

12 8 10 712

138

7 8 8 10 1327 33

Not at all

Not Much

Some Extent

Very Much

We merged the categories of ‘Very much’ and ‘to some extent’ into ‘somewhat worried’ to see

further what was the main source of worry among farmers. We found out that the farmers were

very worried about children’s education, followed by issues related to farming, employment and

health. Surprisingly though 44% of the farmers said that they were very worried about repayment

of loan, the proportion was lower than all other issues. The reason could be that not all farmers

would be indebted (Table 4.7).

Table 4.7: Education of the children was the main source of worry for the farmers.

Worries about: Somewhat Worried

(In Percent)

Education of Children 81

Farming related issues 80

Employment 79

Treatment of ill persons in the household 78

Marriage in household 71

Buying a house 57

Repayment of Loan 44

Note: The categories of “Very much” and “to some extent” have been merged together into ‘Somewhat worried’.

Rest either said not much and not at all or did not express their opinion on this question.

4.1: Worries regarding various lives’ responsibility among farmers across regions and

deferent landholdings.

Chart 4.9, Table 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9 discusses in detail what worries are for farmers in India and

across different regions of India and across different types of farmers. We will now discuss in

detail the different anxieties of farmers.

Problem of Housing: - 57 percent of the respondents were worried about buying a house.

Housing did emerge as matter of worry for Southern, Northern and Western regions where more

than half the farmers responded that they worried a lot about buying a house. Farmers from the

East zone seemed to be least worried (47%). Those who didn’t worry about buying a house

possibly had a better standard of living either because of their success in agriculture which

resulted in higher income or because they’ve inherited a house from their family. A lot of

landless farmers had reported that they were worried about buying a new house.

Children’s Education: Education of the children emerged as a major source of worry. 59

percent of the farmers were extremely worried that their children may not receive a proper

education. This number rose to 81 percent when children’s education was considered a worry to

a somewhat extent. The opinion within the sample shows the importance of education for the

future development of their children with a majority of the farmer’s having high level of

apprehension. Concern about children’s education and land holding seems to be related as the

landless (82 percent), marginal (83 percent) and small farmers (81 percent) were more worried

about their children’s education as compared to the large farmers. Except for central and Western

India, not much variation has been found in the anxiety of farmers about their children’s

education.

Worries regarding marriage: Marriage of family members is also a source of worry for the

farmers. 71 percent of the farmers are either very worried or somewhat worried regarding

marriage in a family. Marriage was a source of worry for farmers in all the regions but maximum

worry was shown by farmers in Northern India where 76 percent of farmers stated that are

somewhat worried about marriage. Maximum worry regarding marriage came from marginal

farmers and the least from the big farmers.

Treatment of the ill person in the household: Treatment of ill family members in their

household is another source of outflow of hard earned income and a cause of worry among the

farmers. Around 52 per cent respondents said that they were very worried regarding ill health of

their family members. 26 percent were worried to some extent, while only 7 per cent did not

report any worry at all about treatment of ill persons in the household. Lack of quality medical

facilities in the rural areas of the country makes it difficult for farmers to get their family

members treated locally in rural areas.

In terms of life responsibilities and worry about treatment of ill persons in the household, farmers

from Central India have reported the least concern compared to farmers from other regions

where ill health was a big worry for the farmers. Farmers in the Eastern region emerged as more

worried about getting treatment of ill persons in the household as 84 percent were found to be

somewhat worried about it. Concern about the health of family members was found to be higher

among landless, marginal and small farmers as compared to big farmers.

Worry regarding employment: Employment opportunity is also another reason for worry

among the farmers. Inadequate income and low standard of living among some farmers compels

them to think in this direction. A little more than half the farmers (56 percent) said that

employment is a great deal of concern for them, whereas 23 respondents were somewhat worried

Farmers of Eastern region have registered larger worry for employment as 84 per cent said that

they were somewhat worried about employment. 80 percent from the western regions had also

reported this worry. Landless and marginal farmers have shown more concern and worry as far

as employment is concerned as 83 percent of the marginal and 81 percent of the landless had

shown somewhat concern regarding the same. Again inadequate income to cover their basic need

could be a possible explanation for their anxiety regarding employment. The younger farmers

were more worried about employment compared to others ( Chart 4.10).

Chart 4.10: The younger farmers are more worried about employment



Worry regarding farming related issues: Coming to the issue that is relevant to their

occupation, farmers were asked how much were they worried about farming related problems.

These problems could be of any kind like, problems associated with crop failure or destruction,

84

82 82

77

73

66

68

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

86

18- 29 years 30- 39 years 40- 49 years 50 - 59 years 60 years and

above

Somewhat worried (%)

less income etc. After education of children, this was the second biggest cause of worry for the

farmers as 80 percent of the farmers stated that they were somewhat worried about the same.

Over half the farmers (56%) reported a great extent of worry due to farming related problems.

High output and income do not completely explain this figure as any farmer regardless of what

his yield or income would be apprehensive about the crop and other issues related to farming

practice. The marginal and small farmers experienced highest worry with 85 percent and 84

percent being worried about the problem respectively. 20 percent landless farmers were not at all

worried about issues related to farming. The possible reason for this could be that they do not

have their own land and they work on others’ land.

Farmers from the East were more worried about farming related problems as compared to

farmers from other regions.

Repayment of loans: Contrary to the general opinion, our sample showed that a low proportion

of farmers were worried about repayment of loans. Interestingly, 33 per cent of the respondents

were not worried at all about repayment of loan. Possible explanations to this result can be

because of govt. assistance in repayment through lower interest rates, waivers or credit. 26

percent of the farmers stated that they were very worried about repayment of the loans.

As expected landless farmers were more worried about repayment of loans as compared to small

and big farmers. Like the land holding size of the farmers, geographical variation too played a

significant role in the level of worry of farmers about repayment of loans. Farmers in the

Southern regions (77 percent) were worried to some extent about paying the loan. Compared to

South the anxiety regarding payment of loans was quite less in other regions.

Table 4.8: Reasons for anxiety among farmer’s across different regions.

Buying

a house

Children’s

education

Worry

for

Marriage

Treatment

of the ill

Employment Farming

related

issues

Repayment

of Loan

North 59 85 76 81 79 78 36

East 47 83 69 84 84 84 40

Central 49 75 70 66 75 78 21

South 66 81 72 73 77 81 77

West 58 78 70 82 80 80 38


Rest are either said not much and not at all or did not express their opinion on this question.

Table 4.9: Reasons for anxiety among farmer’s with different landholdings.

Household

Type

Buying

a

house

Children’s

education

Worry

for

Marriage

Treatment

of the ill

Employment Farming

related

issues

Repayment

of Loan

Landless

Farmers

64 82 71 83 81 63 49

Marginal

Farmers

54 83 74 80 83 85 40

Small

Farmers

55 81 71 79 76 84 46

Big

Farmers

56 71 64 64 69 77 44



4.2 Selling of agricultural land: Though only 5 percent of the farmers said that they had sold

their agricultural land in the last five years, but we tried to find out the reasons for selling the

land. Among those who said that they had sold their land, 27 percent said that they had sold it

because of their poor financial conditions (Table 4.10). 15 percent said that they had sold it as

they needed money for a marriage in the household. There were few who had sold the land for

business and education of son/daughter. Few farmers had also sold it due to the pressure of land

acquisition.

The major reason for farmers in Northern India for selling their land was that money was

required for family marriage and 17 percent sold it for this purpose. In the eastern region 33

percent sold it due to poor financial condition. In the Central regions the main reason for selling

the land was due to the pressure of land acquisition. In south (35%) and West (62%) farmers sold

it due to poor financial conditions.

Table 4. 10: Poor financial condition was the main reason for selling agricultural land.

Reason for selling the land In Percent

Poor financial condition 27

Money required for family marriage 15

For business/education of son/daughter 9

Pressure of land Acquisition 9

Had to return money to the money Lender 7

Got a Good Deal for the land 7

For medical expenditure/Treatment 6

Other Reasons 13

Note: Rest did not express their opinion on this question.

5. Overall Condition of the Farmers

In this section, an attempt has been done to elaborate on the perception of farmers about their

overall condition. Around 47 percent farmer respondent reported bad condition of farmers in the

country. It does not mean that conditions of remaining farmers are good. Only 15 per farmers

reported overall good condition of the farmers (Chart 4.10).

Chart 4.10: The overall condition of the farmers is not good

Note: Categories of ‘very good’ and ‘good’ have been merged to form ‘good’ and the categories of ‘bad’ and ‘very

bad’ have been merged to form bad.

Self-assessment of the overall condition of the farmers by land holding size showed diverse

views. According to marginal farmers 52 percent farmers were in a bad condition whereas in the

view of large farmers overall condition of 41 percent farmer was in bad shape. Not much

variation has been found across the household type for the overall good condition response

(Table 4.11). The proportion of farmers who feel that the overall condition is good and

somewhat good is highest among the big farmers. This is quite logical as greater resources allow

them to live a comfortable life in the village as compared to other farmers.

Table 4.11: Overall condition of the Farmer by Household Type

Household Good Somewhat

good

Bad

Landless farmers 15 25 43

Marginal farmers 14 29 52

Small Farmers 20 35 40

Big Farmers 14 40 41

Note: All figures are in percentage. Categories of ‘very good’ and ‘good’ have been merged to form ‘good’ and the

categories of ‘bad’ and ‘very bad’ have been merged to form bad.

21 percent of the farmers in the central region said that the condition of the farmers was good,

whereas in the Eastern region only 8 percent respondents believed so. Farmers of Western India

(47%) and Central (41%) said that the condition of the farmers were somewhat good. Farmers

15%

31%47%

7%

Good

Somewhat good

Bad

Can’t say

from the East and the South seem to be the most pessimistic about the current condition as a

large proportion of them reported that the condition was bad.

Table 5.26: Overall condition of the Farmer by Geographical Regions

Zone Good Somewhat good Bad Can't say

North 19 28 49 4

East 8 26 59 6

Central 21 41 34 4

South 13 17 60 10

West 17 47 26 10

Total 15 31 46 7

Note: All figures are in percentage. Categories of ‘very good’ and ‘good’ have been merged to form ‘good’ and the

categories of ‘bad’ and ‘very bad’ have been merged to form bad.

Conclusion

We can say from the above findings that farmers face a lot of problems and have high levels of

stress and anxiety. Today farming has become a very tough and stressful occupation as farmers

face pressure due to the economic condition and inadequate income. On top of all this, they are

highly dependent on uncertain weather conditions as they have a direct impact on their crops.

Apart from these they seem to be worried about fulfilling their lives’ responsibilities. Tension

due to all these pressures sometimes forces farmers to take an extreme step of committing

suicide. We need to spread awareness about government policies and need to put in place a

mechanism through which all these problems can be tackled.

CHAPTER 5: Socio-Economic outlook of the Indian farmers

In modern times, urbanization is a new phenomenon which is influencing and shaping the social

and economic outlook of Indian farmers. Farmers who have spent their whole life in villages

practicing agriculture don’t want that their children should continue farming. They want their

children to migrate to cities for better education and employment opportunities.

However, the village society is also transforming as a result of the modernization process. People

like the urban life which motivates and attracts them to choose urban life. In the present study

when farmers were asked to compare city life with village life, most of them said that city life is

better. Out of total surveyed respondents, 69 percent said this. On the other hand, 19 percent

asserted the opposite and said that city life isn’t better than village life (Chart 5.1).

Chart 5.1: City life better than village life

Landless farmers are more likely to prefer city life (Chart 5.2) as they have to work as agriculture

labourers and are only able to earn a meagre income which probably does not fulfill their basic

need; so one possible explanation for preferring city life, could be better employment

opportunities in cities as compared to villages.

30%

39%

19%

12%

Very good Somewhat good Not good at all No opinion

Chart 5.2: Landless farmer in comparison to others largely perceive that city life is very

good as compared to village life

Note: All figures are in percentage. Responses are only for those who said that city life is very good.

This phenomenon is also shaping one’s choice of occupation. A hypothetical situation to the

respondents and they were asked if they would leave farming for an employment opportunity in

the city which would provide a good income, 61 percent gave a positive response and said that

they would opt for the employment opportunity in the city and instead of farming. This positive

response also ranged into two conditions and 29 percent were instantly ready to quit farming

while some said that they would quit farming only if they got employment. However, a quarter

of the respondents said that they do not want to quit farming in spite of better income and

employment opportunities in cities (Chart 5.3). However, there is a regional variation for in this

opinion. For instance farmers from South are not ready to quit farming and seek employment in

the cities. In South India 40 percent of the farmers said that they would not quit farming to grab

an employment opportunity in city. On the contrary, a higher proportion of farmers from East

India are instantly ready to quit farming and move to cities for employment opportunities there

(Table 5.1). A possible explanation for holding this opinion is that farmers from Eastern India

34

30

2725

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Landless Small Farmer Medium Farmer Big Farmer

are relatively less satisfied with their economic condition and they want to quit farming and

migrate to cities for better employment.

Chart 5.3: Two-third of farmers said that they would quit farming, if they get an

employment opportunity in the city

Table 5.1: Farmers from South are not ready to quit farming

Zone Immediately Ready to quit

farming

Ready to quit farming, if get

good job

Not ready to quit

farming

North 29 37 23

East 35 43 19

Central 25 42 26

South 25 14 40

West 29 32 22

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest are can’t say.

Landless and small farmers are more interested in quitting farming and migrating to cities for

employment opportunities with better income prospects. On the contrary, big farmers aren’t

Immediately

Ready to quit

farming

29%

Ready to quit

farming, if get

good job

32%

Not ready to quit

farming

26%

Can’t say

13%

ready to quit farming and don’t want to settle down in cities. 48 percent of the farmers having

big landholding said that they would not quit farming and move to cities (Table 5.2).

Table 5.2: Landless and Small Farmers are ready to quit farming if they get good

employment opportunities in city

Immediately Ready to

quit farming

Ready to quit farming, if

get good job

Not ready to quit

farming

Landless 31 31 18

Small Farmer 31 36 23

Medium Farmer 24 29 33

Big Farmer 19 21 48

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest are can’t say.

Hope for Next Generation:

Farmers are not optimistic about farming as a profession in villages and that’s why many of them

want their children to settle in cities. When they were asked whether they want their children to

settle in a city, 6 out of 10 expressed that they want their children to settle in a city. Around 2 out

of 10 said that it depends on their children’s preference (Table 5.3).

Table 5.3: Most of the farmers want their children to settle in cities

In Percent

Want to settle their children in city 60

Do not want to settle their children in city 14

Will prefer children’s choice 19

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest are can’t say or having no children.

When they were further probed about why they want their children to migrate to cities, education

was brought out as the main reason as 37 percent said that the education system is good in cities.

28 percent felt that life in the cities is better because good facilities are available to people which

improve their standard of living. Employment opportunities also emerged as an important reason

for desiring that children settle in cities. (Chart 5.4).

Chart 5.4: Education is the main reasons for which farmers want their children to settle in

city

Note: Responses are of those only who said that they want their children to settle in city.

As mentioned earlier, most of farmers admitted that they did farming because it is their ancestral

occupation and they like it as an occupation. However, when asked whether they would like to

see their children engage in farming, only 18 percent reverted positively. 36 percent said they do

not want their children to continue farming as their occupation and 36 percent said they will

prefer their children’s choice and go with their decision, (Table 5.4).

Table 5.4: Only 18 percent farmer say that they would like their children continue farming

after them.

In Percent

Children will continue farming after them 18

Children will not continue farming after them 36

Will go with children choice 36

Note: Rest had no opinion and no children.

Education

37%

Better life

facilities

28%

Employment

25%

Other

Reasons

10%

Why are farmers disillusioned with farming? Why don’t they want their children to continue

farming? Most farmers said they want their children to do a better job other than farming.

Farmers believe that their children should opt out from farming as it isn’t a profitable profession

and earning is not enough. There is no future in farming that is why their children should quit the

farming (Table 5.5). For getting a clear picture, we tried to analyze further and found that most

people who do not want their children to continue farming, would like to seem them settle down

in cities (Table 5.6).

Table 5.5: Reasons for avoiding farming for Children

In Percent

Children should do better jobs 19

Farming is not profitable 15

Farming does not have a future 12

Earning are not great in farming 8

Children should study further 6

Farming is risky 4

Children should go to the city 3

Low social status for farmers 2

Farming is a useless work 2

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest are can’t say and other responses. Responses of those only who said they don’t

want their children to continue farming.

Table 5.6: A high proportion of the farmers who don’t see a future in farming want their

children to settle in city

Want their Children to

settle in city

Don’t want their Children to

settle in city

Children should continue farming

after them

51 36

Children should not continue

farming after them

81 10

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest are can’t say and other responses.

For further inquiry, we tried to see variation among farmers belonging to different classes (with

landholding). An equal proportion of landless and small farmers said that they would not like

their children to continue farming after them. Comparatively, a lower proportion of big farmers

said that their children should quit farming (Chart 5.5).

Not only do the farmers want their children to quit farming and do some other job, their children

also want to quit farming and do some other job. In the survey we interviewed young person

from farming household to know their opinion on farming. We asked them if they got an

opportunity to choose between farming and some other work, would they like to do farming or

would they like to do some other work. 6 out of 10 youth belonging to farming families said that

they want to do some other jobs (Table 5.7).

Chart 5.5: Landless farmers don’t want their children continue farming

Note: All figures are in percent. Figures are only for those who said that they don’t their children to continue

farming.

Table 5.7: Six out of ten young persons, belonging to agricultural family want to do some

other work than farming

Percentage of young Respondents

Farming 20

Some other work 62

39 39

34

28

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45


Can't say 18

Note: All figures are in percentage. Question was only asked to the young member of the household. N=2166

Youth do not want to continue farming because they are interested in jobs other than farming.

The low income in farming was the other reason asserted by youth. Some don’t want to pursue

farming as they believe that they are highly qualified and can pursue some other occupation

(Table 5.8).

Table 5.8: Reasons why youth don’t want to pursue farming

In Percent

Interested in other job or work 36

Earning is not good 22

I am highly educated so this work is not for me 8

Risky/mental tension 7

Agriculture is a ruined area 5

Had no other choice/due to family pressure 2

Social status is lower 1

Others 3

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest had no opinion. Question was only asked to the young member of the

household.

Economic Outlook of Indian Farmer:

Farmers in India are ready to quit farming and do not want their children to continue farming.

The reason which was stated by the farmers was the lack of profit and low income through

farming. Hence we asked about farmers’ economic condition and their perception towards future

economic condition. Around half of the farmers are satisfied with their present economic

condition (Table 5.9). The economic condition of the farmers is no similar all across India. The

farmers from central India are more satisfied with their current economic condition whereas

south Indian farmers are not as satisfied with their current economic condition as farmers from

rest of the India (Chart 5.6).

Table 5.9: Half of the farmers are satisfied with their economic conditions

In Percent

Satisfied with household economic condition 51

Dissatisfied with household economic condition 40

Note: All figures are in percent. The rest did not express any opinion on this question.

Chart 5.6: Farmers from Central India are more satisfied with their present economic

condition


Landless farmers are not very satisfied with their present economic condition. 35 percent of the

landless farmers said that they were satisfied with their present economic condition. On the

contrary, big farmers are comparatively more satisfied with their present economic condition. 69

percent of the big farmers said that they are satisfied with their present economic condition

(Table 5.10).

Table 5.10: Landless farmers are more dissatisfied with their current economic condition

Satisfied with household Dissatisfied with household

59

35

71

48 47

34

62

24

4136

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80


Satisfied with household economic condition Dissatisfied with household economic condition

economic condition economic condition

Landless 35 48

Small Farmer 51 42

Medium Farmer 58 43

Big Farmer 69 27


When farmers were asked to compare their present economic condition with their condition five

years ago, four out of ten respondents asserted that their condition has improved. 37 percent

believe that there hasn’t been any change in their economic condition. 15 percent said that they

are worse off today (Table 5.11). East had the highest proportion of farmers who thought that

their condition had worsened in the last five years (Table 5.12).

Table 5.11: 4 out of 10 farmers

Compared to five years ago,

the economic condition is…

In Percent

Better 43

Same 37

Worse 15


Table 5.12: Economic condition farmers in East India has worsened the most

Better than past economic

condition

Same as past economic

condition

Worse than past economic

condition

North 50 31 15

East 33 44 21

Central 56 35 6

South 34 40 19

West 43 36 13


When we tried to look at how farmers having different landholding perceive their present

economic condition as comparison to past five years, we found that it primarily big farmers

whose economic condition has improved over the last five years. 61 percent of the big farmers

asserted that their economic condition has improved whereas only 31 percent of landless farmers

felt so (Chart 5.7).

Chart 5.7: The economic condition of big farmers has improved since last five years


Nevertheless, more farmers are optimistic about their future economic condition. 42 percent of

the farmers believe their economic condition will improve in next five years. 19 percent said that

it will remain the same, whereas only 10 percent said that their economic condition will be worse

off (Table 5.13).

Table 5.13: Farmers are optimist for their future economic condition

The economic condition of your household

in the next Five years would be

In Percent

Better 42

31

41

49

61

4138

35

30

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70


Better than past economic condition Same as past economic condition

Same 19

Worse 10


Farmers were asked to compare the condition of a labourer and a small or marginal farmer

having a small piece of land. We were unable to get a clear response as almost an equal

proportion of respondents felt that the condition of a labourer or a small farmer was better (Chart

5.8).

Chart 5.8: Who is in better condition: a Labourer or a Small Farmer?

Note: Note: All figures are in percent. The rest did not express any opinion on this question.

Sell and Purchase of Land

In the survey, there were only 5 percent respondents said that they had sold or purchased any

piece of land. The main reason for selling their land was poor financial condition. Out of those

who sold their land, 27 percent said that they did so because their financial condition was not

good at that time. 15 percent of the farmers said that they sold their land for their children’s

marriage. Some farmers sold their land due to the pressure of land acquisition (Table 5.14).

2122

26

16

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Labour Small farmer Both None

Table 5.14: Reasons for selling the land

In Percent

Poor financial condition 27

Money required for family marriage 15

Pressure of land acquisition 9

For business/education of son/daughter 9

Had to return money to the money Lender 7

Got a Good Deal 7

For medical expenditure/Treatment 6

Property was disputed and there was pressure to sell 4

Poor earning form the land 3

Pressure from private company 2

Note: All figures are in percent. The Rest did not express any opinion and reported other responses for selling their

land.

In the country there are a large number of people who are sometimes unable to get two meals a

day. It is often highlighted in the media discourse that poor farmer families starve. We asked

farmers to recall if there was any day in the last one year when they didn’t have food and they

were unable to have two meals in a day. Most farmers (72%) said that there was no such instance

in the last one year. Only 10 percent of the interviewed farmers said that there had been such an

occurrence (Chart 5.9).

Chart 5.9: 10 percent farmers households have to spent a day without any meal

When asked about their food schedule/routine, most of the farmer households have two meals a

day. Only 2 percent of them have had one meal in a day. 34 percent said that they take more than

two meals in a day (Table 5.15). Most of the farmers prefer lunch and dinner as their meals; it

was stated by 44 percent of the surveyed farmers (Table 5.16).

Table 5.15: Around two-third farmer eat only two times a day

In Percent

Once 2

Two times 61

More than twice 34

Note: All figures are in percent. The Rest did not express any opinion.

Table 5.16: What meal they take

In Percent

Lunch and dinner 44

Breakfast- lunch-dinner 39

Breakfast and dinner 12

Breakfast and lunch 2

Note: All figures are in percent. The Rest did not express any opinion.

spent a day

without any

meal

10%

Never spent a day

without any meal

72%

Don't remember

14%

No answer

4%

Loan: The Government of India had launched a loan waiver scheme under which the loan taken

by a farmer was either waived or remitted. When asked whether the farmers in our survey had

taken any loan in last five years, most of them said they had not taken any loan. Only two out of

ten farmers said that they had taken a loan for farming (Chart 5.10). They had mainly taken a

loan for purchasing fertilizers, seeds, pesticides etc. 60 percent asserted this reason. 23 percent

said they had to take the loan because they had to buy farming equipments like tractor, thrasher

etc. 3 percent said that they had taken a loan for buying land (Table 5.17).

Chart 5.10: only 2 out of 10 farmers have taken loan in the last five years

Table 5.17: Purpose for taking loan

In Percent

To purchase fertilizers, seeds, pesticides etc 60

To purchase farming equipments like tractor, thrasher etc. 23

To purchase land 3

To purchase cattle 2

Note: All figures are in percent. The Rest did not express any opinion and report other responses.

Indian farmers are opinionated socially more open to the idea of equal distribution of property

among their sons and daughters. When they were asked whether they will distribute their

property equally among their son and daughters, 5 out of 10 said that they will distribute their

property equally among their children. 26 percent directly refused to do so. 17 percent said they

cannot say at this point.

Took loan in the

last five years

20%

Did not take loan

in the last five

years

80%

To Sum Up:

Indian farmers are not satisfied with farming as an occupation that is why they want to quit

farming and migrate to cities for better job opportunities. According to them, income from

agriculture is not enough to cover their household needs. This leads them to wish that their next

generation doesn’t engage in farming and migrates to cities for better education and employment

opportunities. They are somewhat satisfied with their economic condition and hope that it will

improve further; but this perception is there all across the country. Farmers from states with good

agricultural facilities are more satisfied than farmers from states where agricultural infrastructure

is relatively less developed.

Chapter 6: Awareness and opinion on the various Schemes and views

related to politics and government

The following chapter deals with an important theme of awareness among farmers about various

laws and schemes that are available for them. From time to time, the Government of India comes

out with various schemes. These schemes are either central, state specific, or joint collaborations

between the Centre and the States. In this chapter, we will try to tap farmers’ views about various

schemes and attempt to understand how they feel about the implementation of these schemes as

well as whether they are benefitting from them or not. We will also try to understand their views

on politics and Government. This chapter has three sections:-

I: - Awareness and impact of various laws

II: - Awareness and opinions on various agricultural Schemes

III: - Farmers’ views on Politics

I:- Farmers’ View on various schemes and laws

To tap farmers’ perception on current political issues, we took their opinion on some schemes

and laws directly related to them, for example Foreign Direct Investment, Land Acquisition Law,

Direct Cash Transfer and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

A lot has been discussed about Foreign Direct Investment, its pros and cons and its impact on

Indian farmers. We tried to find out from the farmers, whether they were aware about FDI or

not? We observed that a majority of the farmers weren’t even aware about Foreign Direct

Investment as nearly 83 percent of them had never heard about it. Only 11 percent confirmed

that they have heard about it (Chart 6.1). Even though the percentage of those who had heard

about the FDI was quite small, we tried to further understand what they felt about it, whether

they want the government to allow it in the agriculture sector or not. Two contrasting statements

were put in front of those who had heard about FDI: first, FDI should be allowed in agriculture

sector so that farmers can sell their crops directly to the big companies and second, FDI should

not be allowed in the agriculture sector as farmers may not be able to bargain well with the

companies and would end up incurring huge losses. We observed that among those who had

heard about the FDI, most of the farmers held a similar view which came across in the discussion

on the impact of FDI for farmers. 51 percent favoured the second statement that FDI in

agriculture would hurt farmers’ capacity of bargaining (Table 6.1). This shows that farmers were

not very happy with the idea of FDI and a majority of them were against its implementation in

agriculture. This was due to the wide spread perception of loss in their bargaining power. A

study, which was conducted in Meerut, also showed that the idea of FDI had resulted in a mixed

reaction among farmers. While some welcomed this move, there were others who were still

skeptical about the entry of international retail stores in the city. Some farmers like, Mukarram

Ali Khan, a city-based farmer, who had been into farming for more than 15 years, were in favour

of FDI and stated that, "We are hopeful that these retail stores will provide a large platform to

the farmers to sell their produce, if these stores benefited the farmers of the US, they will benefit

us also." 32 He also said that these stores would end the monopoly of certain buyers in the Mandi

who haggle over prices and pay very less to the farmers. The arrival of these stores will at least

give an option to the farmers to route their produce to these stores, if they provide a better price

than the mandi33. On the other hand, there was not much satisfaction with the existing Indian

retail chains. They felt that the stores demand very high quality products but give the same price

for the produce as the Mandi. Unlike the Mandi, where all the vegetables get sold, the retail

stores grade the vegetables and buy only 10 percent of the best of produce. The farmers then

have to go to the Mandi to sell the unsold vegetables. So, these stores neither provide a very

good rate nor buy the total produce.

Chart 6.1: Farmers are not aware about FDI

32 Md Tausif Alam (2012) ‘ Meerut farmers cold about FDI in retail’ The Economic Times . Retrieved from

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-10-06/news/34293882_1_meerut-farmers-retail-chains-walmart-

and-tesco. Accessed on 29/05/2014

33 Ibid

Heard

about FDI

11%

Not

heard

about …

Can't say

6%

Table 6.1: Farmers are not in favour of FDI in the agriculture sector

With which statement you are agree more……. In

Percent

FDI should be allowed in agriculture sector so that farmers can sell their crops

directly to the big companies

28

FDI should not be allowed in the agriculture sector since farmers may not be able to

bargain

51


Surprisingly, landless farmers were more in support of foreign direct investment in agriculture

because they believed that farmers can sell their crops directly to the big companies (Table 6.2).

40 percent of the landless farmer had supported the idea of FDI in agriculture. On the contrary,

marginal, small and big farmers did not support FDI in the agriculture sector since they believed

that it would harm the bargaining capacity of farmers.

One interesting finding, which emerges is the presence of an equal number of young farmers in

support as well as opposition of FDI in agriculture. The proportion of young farmers supporting

FDI is almost double the proportion among the older age group (Table 6.3).

Similarly, on the basis of the education level of farmers, those in support of FDI were majorly

the educated lot. Chart 6.2 shows that only 22 percent of the non-literate supported FDI in

agriculture compared to the 42 percent of the college and above educated farmers.

Table: 6.2 Landless Farmers are more in support of FDI in agriculture

Support for FDI in agriculture No Support for FDI in agriculture

Landless farmers 40 37

Marginal Farmers 29 52

Small farmers 26 54

Big Farmers 24 53


Table6.3: Young farmers more in support of FDI

Farmers in the age group of ... Support for FDI in

agriculture

No Support for FDI

in agriculture

18- 40 years 41 41

Above 41 years 22 56


Chart 6.2:-Educated farmers support the FDI more

Note: All figures are in percent. The rest are those who did not support FDI and who did not express any opinion.

Direct Cash Transfer:

Government has introduced a scheme called Direct Cash Transfers under which subsidies on

certain commodities shall be directly transferred to the bank account of beneficiaries. However,

only 3 out of 10 farmers have heard about this scheme (Chart 6.3). The level of awareness varies

from region to region. East India has the highest proportion of farmers who haven’t heard about

this scheme.

Chart 6.3: Only 3 out of 10 have heard about Direct cash Transfer

Landless farmers were least aware about the direct cash transfer scheme. Only 13 percent of

them had heard about it. However, the big farmers, on the other hand, demonstrated a much

better understanding of the scheme in comparison to the rest. Table 6.4 reiterates this fact,

wherein 5 out of 10 farmers having big landholdings were aware about the scheme.

Table 6.4: The landless farmers are least aware about the direct cash transfer scheme

Heard about Direct Cash Transfer

scheme

Not heard about Direct Cash

Transfer scheme

22 25 26

42

Support of FDI in

agriculture

Heard

about

Direct …

Not heard

about

Direct …

Can't say

Landless farmers 13 71

Marginal Farmers 28 66

Small farmers 36 57

Big Farmers 45 50

Note: All figures are in percentage. The rest did not express any opinion on this question.

As per the scheme, the money for subsidy will go directly to the beneficiaries’ account. This

further led to various speculations. A study done by International food policy Research Institute

stated that Fertilizer use in India has exploded since the government began a subsidization

program in the 1970s. Though the National fertilizer consumption rate has increased by 50

percent during the 1990s, the effectiveness of these inputs has actually declined. Many farmers

started applying more fertilizers on their land, which increased the cost of the government’s

subsidy program34. Overuse of chemical fertilizers also causes long-term damage to the soil and

surrounding water supply. While some farmers were using far too many fertilizers, other smaller

farmers continued to have little or no access to fertilizers, thereby highlighting deeper systematic

problems with fertilizer subsidies and distribution within the country. Direct cash transfer was

considered as an effort to break this cycle of costly and damaging overuse, as well as a means of

increasing access to proper amounts of fertilizer for the marginalized farmers. It was hoped that

direct cash transfer would provide incentives for farmers to use fertilizers more efficiently and

also lower the cost to the government. Many disadvantages were mentioned about this scheme

like- the challenge of preventing cash transfers from distorting market prices and its devastating

repercussions on the farmers.

Fertilizer prices by nature are highly variable, and therefore, the scheme would have to protect

farmers’ purchasing power in the face of these changing prices. Tracking prices effectively for

various types of fertilizers would in turn be time-consuming and expensive.

34 Sara Gustafson (2013) ‘From subsidies to Direct Cash Transfers for fertilizer purchase in India ’ International

Food Policy Research Institute Retrieved from http://www.ifpri.org/blog/subsidies-direct-cash-transfers-fertilizer-

purchase-india. Accessed on 03/05/2013

In this study, we have tried to understand what farmers feel about direct cash transfer, therefore

we asked respondents about their opinion on the provisions laid down under the scheme.

Whether they wanted subsidy for agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers etc to be directly

deposited in their account so that they can use that money as per their needs or whether they

want the subsidy to continue as it is. However, to our disappointment, we couldn’t find any clear

answer. Around 40 percent of the interviewed farmers did not express an opinion on this issue.

While, 34 percent were ready to accept the provisions made under the scheme. They agreed that

the cash for the subsidy should directly go to their accounts. 19 percent, on the other hand, said

that the subsidy should continue on agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers. 7 percent

farmers mentioned the probability of corruption in both the methods (Chart 6.4).

Chart 6.4: Most of the people have No Opinion on this Issue


When we tried to see which farmers were in support of direct cash transfer and who were not.

We found out the landless farmers were not able to express their view on this question. 60

percent of them had not expressed any opinion on this issue (Table 6.5). One thing that emerged

was that across all types of farmers, cash transfer where money was directly deposited to the

account was favored over the subsidy on agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers etc. The young

farmers were less aware about this scheme compared to the farmers who were above 41 years of

age. Education clearly had an impact on the awareness of the scheme. As we moved from the

non literate farmers to middle and highly educated, the awareness level on direct cash transfer

also increased.

Table 6.5: Landless farmers are ambiguous about the provision

34

19

7

40

Directly deposit into

the account

Subsidy should

continue on

agricultural inputs

like seeds, fertilizers

etc

Both the methods

lead to corruption

No Opinion

Directly

deposit

into the

account

Subsidy should continue

on agricultural inputs like

seeds, fertilizers etc

Both the methods

lead to corruption

No Opinion

Landless

farmers

21 11 7 60

Marginal

Farmers

37 19 7 37

Small farmers 38 24 8 30

Big Farmers 38 28 11 23


Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA):

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which came out in

2005 tried to make the Government legally accountable for employment to those who ask for it.

The Act aims at enhancing the livelihood security of the people in rural areas by guaranteeing

hundred days of wage employment in a financial year, to a rural household whose members

volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The objective of the Act is to create durable assets and

strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor35.

When farmers were asked whether they had heard about the MGNREGA, majority of them

reverted positively. 85 percent of the farmers have heard about this scheme (Chart 6.5). Farmers

from Central and South India are more aware about the Act, while farmers from western states of

India were comparatively less aware about it (Table 6.6).Even the farmers in the North and East

were significantly aware about the Act. Among those who have heard about this scheme, only 44

percent admitted that a member of their household got work under the Act (Table 6.7). A joint

study that was done by UNDP and Sambodhi Research, found that MGNREGA has made a

significant impact in generating income for small and marginal farmers especially in case of

35 Governmnet of Inida, Ministry of Rural Development ‘ National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005

(NREGA): Report of the Second Year April 2006 March 2007. Retrieved from http://nrega.nic.in/nregarpt_eng.pdf.

Accessed on 3/05/2014

work on land of individual beneficiaries36. Our study also showed similar finding. 54 percent of

the landless farmers said that a member of their household had got work under this scheme

(Chart 6.6).

Chart 6.5: Most of the Farmers are aware about MGNREGA


Table 6.6: Farmers from Central and South India are more aware about the MGNREGA

Zone Heard about MGNREGA Not heard about MGNREGA

North 85 13

East 89 10

Central 94 6

South 93 5

West 68 24


Table 6.7: 5 out of 10 have not get work under MGNREGA Scheme

In Percent

Household got work under this scheme 44

Household did not get work under this scheme 51


Chart: 6.6 Landless farmers most benefitted by MGNREGA

36 Ruhi Tewari (2013) ‘NREGA useful for marginal farmers ’ The Indian Express Retrieved from

http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/nrega-useful-for-marginal-farmers/1117950/. Accessed on 5/06/2014

Heard about

MNREGA

85%

Not heard

about

MNREGA

12%

No opinion

3%

Note: - Rest are those who did not get work and those who did not express any opinion on this question.

There has been a debate over the duration of work under the MGNREGA scheme. Some

believed that MGNREGA work should not happen during the time of cropping and harvesting,

because it affects the agriculture as labourers get engaged in MGNREGA work. On the contrary

others believe that work under MGNREGA should continue for the whole year. In order to know

what the farmers had to say about all this, we asked the same question from them. Most of the

farmers were in favour of continuous work under MGNREGA. 76 percent of the interviewed

farmers said that MGNREGA work should always take place; whereas 38 percent said that

MGNREGA work should only happen when there is no need for agriculture labor (Table 6.8).

As expected, most of the landless labours were of the opinion that MGNREGA work should

always take place compared to other farmers. Big farmers were more in support of the idea that

MGNREGA work should only happen when there is no need for agriculture labour (Chart 6.7).

This could be because there are beliefs that MGNREGA leads to an increase in agricultural

wages.

Table 6.8: Most of the Farmers are in favour of continuous work under MGNREGA

In Percent

NREGA work should only happen when there is no need for agriculture labor 38

NREGA work should always take place 76


Chart 6.7: Landless farmers are in favour of continuous work under MGNREGA

54

43 44

33

Landless Marginal

Farmer

Small Farmer Big Farmer

Got work under

MGNREGA (%)


Land Acquisition Law:

The new land acquisition law, enacted by the parliament in 2013, aims to provide fair compensation,

rehabilitation and resettlement to farmers whose land is acquired. It came into force on 1st Jan 2014. The

earlier law gave all powers to the government and ignored the farmers whose land was being acquired,

whereas the new law proposes that farmers and landowners should be paid up to four times the market

value for land acquired in rural areas and two times the market value in urban areas. Another feature of

this new act is that the consent of 80 percent and 70 percent of land owners is required for acquiring land

for private and public-private projects respectively37. Though, when this survey was done, the new law

had not come into force, but we have tried to access the awareness on this law among farmers.

On the issue of land acquisition, the level of awareness among farmers is quite low. Only 27

percent of the farmers have heard about the Land Acquisition Law, whereas 66 percent had not

heard about this law (Table 6.9). Even among those who had heard about this Act, only 48

percent actually knew what the Act is about. 54 percent did not know what the Act is all about.

Also among those who had heard about the scheme, 21 percent said that they had benefitted from

this law. 57 percent of the respondents said that they were in loss because of the law, whereas 22

percent did not express their opinion on the issue (Table 6.10).

Table 6.9: One third of the farmers are not aware about the Land Acquisition Law

37 (2013) ‘New Land Acquisition Act comes into force’ The Economic Times Retrieved from

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-01/news/45764546_1_new-land-acquisition-act-fair-

compensation-acquiring-land

2238 40 49

4939 37

30

0

20

40

60

80

100

Landless

farmers

Marginal

Farmers

Small farmers Big Farmers

NREGA work should always

take place

NREGA work should only

happen when there is no need

for agriculture labor

In Percent

Heard about the Land Acquisition Law 27

Not heard about the Land Acquisition Law 66


Table 6.10: 2 out of 10 benefited from the Land Acquisition Law

In Percent

Benefitted from the law 21

Loss from the law 57

Don't know/Can't say 22


II-Awareness about agricultural schemes:

Other than aforementioned laws, government has also introduced many schemes for farmers and

the agricultural sector like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Gramin Bhandaran Yojana, National

Food Security Mission, National agriculture insurance scheme, Agriculture technology

Management Agency, Gramin Beej Yojana, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kisan Credit Card and Loan

Waiver scheme. Majority of farmers were aware of Loan Waiver scheme (53%) followed by

Kisan Credit card (52%). Farmers were not much aware about the different schemes that were

available for them. Amongst all the schemes, the least awareness was about Agriculture

Technology Management Agency (ATMA). Only 13 percent of farmers had heard about it.

(Chart 6.8). The chart clearly shows that farmers were not aware about various schemes that

were started by the Government of India for them. In order to avail the benefits of a particular

scheme, farmers should at least be aware of these schemes. Also among the ones who were

aware of the schemes majority had not benefitted from them. The scheme from which the

farmers had benefitted the maximum was Gramin Beej Yojana, followed by Kisan Credit Card.

On the whole, farmers do not seem to be aware of the schemes, which came into being for them.

However, educated and young farmers were a little more aware about these schemes as

compared to the less educated and farmers above the age of 40 years.

Chart 6.8: Lack of awareness among farmers about different schemes

To measure the awareness level of farmers on different agricultural schemes, an index was

formed using some questions which gauged the awareness level among farmers.38 The study

reveals that 23 percent of the farmers, who were interviewed, fall in the category of no

awareness. 77 percent of the farmers were aware of the schemes that the government has

introduced for them; Out of these, most (43%) were less aware,24 percent were moderately

aware and 10 percent were highly aware (Chart 6.9). The level of awareness is not uniform

among farmers with different landholdings. When we combine the categories of low and

moderate awareness, we see that landless farmers are least aware about these schemes. Across all

the farmers, majority fall in the category of moderate awareness. One interesting thing that came

out is that as we move from landless farmers to big farmers, the awareness level also increases

(Chart 6.10). The possible answer for this could be that the landless and marginal farmers either

have no land or less land and therefore they do not keep themselves updated about the

agricultural schemes as compared to the big farmers who would benefit the most form these

schemes and therefore are more aware about them.

Chart 6.9 : Awareness among farmers on different Agricultural schemes

38 Index of awareness of farmers was created to assess overall levels of awareness on different agricultural schemes.

The questions used were q15a- q15g, q45 and q 46 from the farmers study done by CSDS. These questions

measured the awareness level of the farmers regarding various agricultural schemes. These were: Rashtriya Krishi

Vikas Yojana , Gramin Bhandaran yojana , National Food Security Mission (NFSM) , National Agriculture

Insurance Scheme (NAIS), Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) , Gramin Beej Yojana , Krishi

Vigyan Kendra, loan waiver scheme and Kisan Credit card. All nine questions were asked in a similar format where

the respondent has a choice of answering Yes or No. Responses to all these questions were collated and ordered into

four categories: No awareness, low awareness, moderate awareness and High awareness. All those who were aware

of seven out nine or eight out of nine or nine out of nine schemes formed the high awareness. All those who were

aware of four out nine or five out of nine or six out of nine schemes formed the moderate awareness. All those who

were aware of three out nine or two out of nine or one out of nine schemes formed the Low awareness. All those

who were not aware of any of the nine schemes formed the No Awareness category.

54 5230 30 28 23 23 19 13

18 29

23 3324

19 20 2315 Benefitted(%)

Heard(%)

Chart6.10: Landless farmers are the least aware about agricultural schemes.

Note: Categories of ‘low awareness’ and ‘Moderate awareness’ has been merged to form ‘Moderate awareness’.

As far awareness among farmers across different geographical regions is concerned, Farmers

from West India seem to be least aware as 32 percent fell in the no awareness category. Table

6.11 shows that 15 percent of the farmers in Central India were highly aware about the schemes.

Majority of the farmers in all five zones were moderately aware about the schemes.

Table 6.11: Majority of farmers are moderately aware about the schemes.

Zone No

awareness

Moderate

awareness

High

awareness

North 25 65 10

East 27 61 12

Central 14 71 15

South 14 83 3

West 32 58 10

Note: All figures are in percent. Categories of ‘low awareness’ and ‘Moderate awareness’ has been merged to form

‘Moderate awareness’.

23%

43%

24%

10%

No awareness

Low awareness

Moderate Awareness

High awareness

0

20

40

60

80

Landless

farmers

Marginal

Farmers

Small

farmers

Big Farmers

37

24

1613

58

6673 74

510 11 13

No awareness(%)

Moderate awareness(%)

High awareness(%)

Education has a positive relationship with awareness. If we look at the scale of education level

and its relationship with awareness, we observe that the less educated or non-literate farmers

were lower on awareness compared to the more educated ones. Compared to illiterate farmers,

educated farmers were placed higher on the awareness index. 5 percent of the non-literate

farmers had high awareness compared to 22 percent of the the farmers who were college

educated and above. Education definitely generated higher level of awareness among farmers

(Chart 6.11). Media exposure also has a positive impact as far as awareness is concerned. Media

acts as a source of information. Chart 6.12 shows that farmers with no media exposure were low

on awareness.

Chart6.11:Education had a posiitve impact on level of awareness

Note: Rest are other categories of awareness.

Chart 6.12: Media exposure has a positive impact on awareness of schemes

Note: Rest are other categories of awareness and those who did not express any opinion on this question.

The Minimum Support Price (MSP) Scheme is a scheme of the Government to safeguard the

interests of the farmers. Under this Scheme the Government declares Minimum Support Prices

0

10

20

30

40

Non Literate Upto middle

school

9- 12th college and

above educated

34

2213 11

5

9

1422

High awareness(%)

No awareness(%)

9

14

15

30

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

High Media Exposure

Medium Media Exposure

Low Media Exposure

No Media Exposure

No awareness(%)

for various agricultural produces and assures the farmers that their agricultural produce will be

purchased at the MSP, thereby preventing distress sale39. 56 percent of the interviewed farmers

were not aware about MSP. 38 percent had heard about the MSP (Table 6.12). Most of the

farmers who have heard about the scheme were not satisfied with the rates of crops decided by

the government. 64 percent of the respondents asserted their dissatisfaction about the crop rate;

while only 27 percent of the interviewed farmers expressed their satisfaction with the rates

(Table 6.13).

Table 6.12: Awareness about Minimum Support Price (MSP)

In Percent

Heard about the Minimum Support Price (MSP) 38

Not heard about the Minimum Support Price (MSP) 56

Note: The rest did not express any opinion on this question.

Table 6.13: Farmers are not satisfied with the rates of crops decided by the Government

In Percent

Satisfied with the rates of crops decided by the Government 27

Not satisfied with the rates of crops decided by the Government 64


The findings indicate that farmers were not well informed about the schemes and the provisions

made within them. There is a provision under which farmers can get information or help related

to agricultural matters like soil test, use of fertilizers etc. from officers of agriculture department.

However, three fourth of the farmers said that they did not get any information or help from

agriculture department on these matters (Table 6.14).Farmers were also not very aware of the

Private Kisan Call Centres and Government Kisan Call Centre. 6 percent of farmers contacted

private Kisan Call Centre whereas 9 percent of them contacted government Kisan Call Centre to

know about farming. Around 18 percent had not even heard about these call centres.

Table 6.14: Farmers do not get any information from agriculture department

In Percent

Get information from Agriculture Department 15

39 Governmnet of Mhahrashtra “Minimum Support Price Scheme” Retrieved from

http://mahafood.gov.in/website/english/PDS11.aspx

Did not get information from Agriculture Department 74


III-Famers’ Political Participation:

Apart from awareness of farmers about different schemes and laws made for them, we also tried

to assess how active were farmers in politics. We have seen farmers resorting to demonstrations,

strikes, gherao etc to press for their demands. Farmers were asked whether demonstrations,

strikes, gherao etc are appropriate ways through which farmers can fight for their rights or not,

67 percent of the farmers considered these means as appropriate, whereas only 7 percent

considered them to be inappropriate. Out of those who considered them appropriate, 35 percent

said that they were appropriate as per the situation. 10 percent of the farmers believed that

demonstrations, strikes and Gherao are inappropriate, but they are the only way out (Table 6.15).

We also tried to find out whether farmers themselves have taken part in any such demonstration

or strikes. We found that only 18 percent of the respondents had taken part in any demonstration

or strike, while three fourth of the interviewed farmers never took part in any demonstration or

strike (Table 6.16). Farmers from the South followed by North were more active in participating

in strikes and demonstrations (Chart 6.13). Small farmers most actively participated in strikes as

compared to others. The least participation came from landless farmers (10%)

Table 6.15: Two third of the farmers believe that Demonstrations, strikes, Gherao are

Appropriate

Demonstrations, strikes, Gherao are….. In Percent

Appropriate 32

Appropriate, as per the situation 35

Inappropriate, but the only way out 10

Inappropriate 7

Note: Rest are can’t say

Table 6.16: Three fourth of the farmers never took part in any demonstration or strikes in

last five years

In Percent

Never took part in any demonstration or strikes 75

Took part in any demonstration or strikes 18

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest are can’t say

Chart 6.13: Farmers from the Southern Indian are more active in participating in

demonstrations and strikes

Note: Rest are those who did not take part and those who did not express any opinion on this question.

The key role of farmers’ organizations all over the world is to protect the interest of farmers. For

this reason it is obvious that the farmers who are the members of these organizations would be

more active in participation in strikes related to farmers. Our study also confirms this as 27

percent of the farmers, who are member of farmers’ organizations, participate in strikes as

compared to 17 percent of those who are not members (Table 6.17).

Table6.17: Member’s of farmer’s organization more active in demonstrations and strikes

Participated in demonstration/strike

concerning farmer issues

Member of farmer

organization

27

Not a member of farmer

organization

17

Note: Rest are those who did not take part and can’t say

When the survey was done, Lok Sabha elections were due and therefore farmers were also asked

to report the most important issue for them while voting in the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha

28

20 19

12 12

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

South North Central East West

Took part in any demonstration

or strikes(%)

elections. Most of the farmers stated that price rise as the most important issue for 2014

elections. 17 percent of the surveyed farmers reported the same followed by other issue like

unemployment, irrigation and corruption. 5 percent said that corruption was the main issue for

them. Only 1 percent of the farmers said that farmers and their problems would be the main issue

for them while voting (Table 6.18).

Table 6.18: Most important issue while voting in the 2014 Lok Sabha election

Issue In Percent

Price Rise 17

Unemployment 6

Irrigation Water 6

Corruption 5

Drinking Water 4

Electricity 4

Poverty 4

Education 2

Lack of development 2

Low Price for Agriculture Product 2

Farmer / Farming distress 1

Corruption of government officers 1

Note: Rest reported other issues

We have tried to see who the farmers consider responsible for their problems. As far as the

elected representatives are concerned, both MLAs and MPs were considered more responsible

compared to others. 12 percent of the farmers stated that both MLAs and MPs are responsible for

their problems. 9 percent of the farmers blame MLAs for their problems and 7 percent blamed

the Sarpanch. One thing that comes out is that the farmers consider the local and state leaders

more responsible for their problems as compared to the MPs. Majority of the farmers (38%) did

not blame any one person rather they said that their MPs, MLAs and Sarpanch were all

responsible for their problems. Across all categories of farmers, majority of them considered

everybody responsible, however, the landless farmers blamed the sarpanch for their present

appalling condition. The marginal, small and big farmers on the other hand blamed both MP and

MLA.

We also tried to see whether the farmers consider their state government more responsible or the

Central Government for their problems. Table 6.20 shows that though majority of the people

(48%) blame both the central and the state government. Central government was still considered

to be more responsible than the state government, though by a small margin of 2 percent.

Table 6.19: Farmers consider MP’s, MLA’s and Sarpanchs responsible for their problems

Most responsible for the problems of farmers In Percent

All 38

MLA and MP 12

MLA 9

Sarpanch 7

None 5

MLA and Sarpanch 4

MP 3

MP and Sarpanch 3

Farmers themselves 3

Note: Rest either said that all were responsible or stated no opinion.

Table 6.20: Central Government a little more responsible for the problems of the farmers

Most responsible for the problems of farmers In Percent

Both 48

Central government 19

State government 17

None 3

Farmers themselves 2

Note: All figures are in percent. Rest are can’t say

When farmers were which party takes care of their interest the most, 16 percent of the farmers

stated BJP and 13 percent said Congress. The figures for other parties were very less. More than

half the farmers stated no opinion in this question. The maximum support for congress came

from the southern states, where 23 percent farmers said that the party takes care of the farmers

the most, followed by farmers in central India (17%), Western India, Northern and eastern India.

Similarly, BJP was most favoured by farmers in Central India, where 39 percent said that the

party took care of the interest of the farmers. 28 percent of farmers in the west stated BJP,

followed by farmers in west India, Northern India and Eastern India. (Chart 6.14).

Chart 6.14: Which party takes care of the farmers the most.

Note: Rest are either said other parties or did not express any opinion on this question.

We tried to see that which parties do the farmers? We found that 22 percent of the farmers were

BJP supporters and 19 percent supported Congress. 20 percent of the farmers asserted that they

weren’t supporters of any particular party. The BJP enjoyed greater support as compared to the

Congress among all classes except landless farmers. The BJP seemed to be ahead of the

Congress in North, Central and West Zones, both parties were almost equal in East and the

Congress was way ahead in the South.

Table6.21: Farmers and support for a party.

Congress BJP Not a supporter of any party

All 19 22 20

Framers according to landholding

Landless farmer 16 13 24

Marginal farmer 17 22 20

Small farmers 22 25 19

Big farmers 24 32 14

Geographical Regions

0

20

40

60


9 717 23

1010

6

39

4 28

BJP(%)

Congress(%)

North 14 21 25

East 12 13 16

Central 23 42 17

South 28 3 21

West 18 36 17

Caste Group

Scheduled Caste 19 17 21

Scheduled Tribes 17 30 9

Other Backwards Castes 18 24 19

Upper castes 21 21 24

Note: All figures are in percentage. Rest either said other parties or did not express any opinion on this question.

Conclusion

Based on the farmers study conducted by CSDS, it can broadly be concluded that the awareness

level of farmers on different schemes and policies related to them seems to be very low. They

aren’t much aware about these schemes. Creating awareness among farmers is extremely crucial

as it would help them in taking advantage of these schemes. The government from time to time

should make an effort to organize awareness programmes for farmers and spread information

about these schemes. For instance, even though the farmers were aware about a few schemes like

MGNREGA, Loan waiver scheme, Kisan Credit Card etc, they were clueless about the rest or

less aware about the other schemes. As a result, very few farmers have benefitted from these

schemes.

Price rise was seen as another major issue for the farmers and they also blamed elected

representatives for their problems. Similarly, farmers saw the central and state government as a

major reason for their unending problems. As far as different parties are concerned, farmers seem

to be supporting the Bhartiya Janta Party, slightly more in comparison to the Congress and other

parties.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Since Independence and even prior to it many surveys have been conducted to know the state of

Indian farmers and based on which various schemes and plans have been launched for their

development. This study also was conducted to have a fair idea about the status of Indian

farmers. The study not only reinforces some findings from earlier studies done earlier but also

provides insights into some unexplored dimensions of Indian agriculture.

We find that four out of every five farming households are headed by males. The pattern is

slightly different in some states of South India like Kerala for example where two in every five

farming household are headed by females. Besides heading the households, two in every three

females of a household are also involved in almost all farm activities and the participation of

female increases with acreage owned by the household. Two in every five households involve

their children in farming activities. Farming remains the traditional occupation of eight out of ten

farmers in the country. Agriculture is their main occupation and source of household income.

Apart from agriculture, some are also engage in other occupations like working as professionals,

businessmen, labourers, other agriculture related works, etc. Among farmers who are engaged in

other works, about 60 percent are still involved in agriculture related activities. The interest in

farming is slowly decreasing among the youth due to perceived low income potential in farming.

Every fourth farmers up to the age of 35 dislikes farming but the number reduces to one in five

among those who are above 45 years of age. About half of the farmers are marginal having up to

2 acres of land and one fourth are small farmers having up to 5 acres of land. The farming

community is dominated by Hindu OBC group as every two of five farmers belong to this group

followed by Hindu upper caste and SCs with one in every five farmer. Big farmers with more

than 5 acres of land are mainly present in South and West India followed by central India.

Farmers are residing in houses ranging from huts to pucca house. Relatively, a higher proportion

of landless farmers reside in huts as compared to other categories. A substantial proportion of big

farmers have pucca independent house. Although farmers are using advanced tools for farming,

traditional tools like plough are still being used by a large number of farmers. The use of tractors

by farmers is most common in North followed by East and Central India.

The level of literacy among farmers is not good with about half of the farmers being either

illiterate of have studied only up to primary level. Only 6 percent farmers are graduates. Farmers

may not be using latest technology or tools in agriculture, but they are definitely using other

modern gadgets as almost three fourth of them are every 3 of four using mobile and more than

half have TV sets. This may be related to the household income of the farmers. About half of the

farmers have a monthly income of up to Rs. 5000 and one third earn more than Rs. 5000 every

month.

Most of the farmers like the urban life and feels that city life is good. This is more so in case of

landless farmers and this tendency decreases with increased ownership. Given a choice, as many

as two third of the farmers would quit farming. About two third farmers want their children to

settle in cities because of better education system, employment opportunities and other civic

facilities. Most of the farmers do not want their children to pursue farming as earning is not good

from farming. These trends are more common among landless farmers as compared to big or

medium farmers.

About half of the farmers perceive that their economic condition has improved over the last five

years. Economic satisfaction level is higher among big farmers as compared to all others. One in

every ten farmers had to spend a day without a meal in the last one year and one in every five

farmers had taken loan, which was mainly used for purchasing seeds or fertilizers. Price rise was

considered as the most important problem by the farmers and they hold their elected

representatives accountable for this.

There are various level of awareness about various policy issues and schemes of the Government

concerning them. Only one in every five farmers have heard about Foreign Direct Investment

(FDI) and among those who have heard more than half are not in favour as they think that it may

impact their bargaining power. Support for FDI is high among landless, young and educated

farmers in comparison to others. Only two out of five have heard about direct cash transfer

scheme of the government. The awareness level was higher with higher land holding and

education level. Similarly, only about one third farmers have heard about land acquisition law

and out of those who have heard more than half do not know about the act. Awareness level for

MGNREGA was as high as 85% among farmers and farmers of central and south India were

more aware than other region and more than half of landless farmers benefitted from

MGNREGA and want it to continue.

The awareness level about government introduced schemes in agricultural sector like Ashtray

Krishi Vikas Yojana, Gramin Bhandaran Yojana, National Food Security Mission, National

Agriculture Insurance Scheme, Agriculture Technology Management Agency, Gramin Beej

Yojana, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kisan Credit Card and Loan Waiver Scheme was not

satisfactory. Among all these schemes maximum awareness was record for the Loan Waiver Scheme

and Kisan Credit Card. Least awareness was about Agriculture Technology Management Agency

(ATMA). The schemes from which the farmers have benefitted the maximum were Gramin Beej

Yojana and the Kisan Credit Card. Benefits of government schemes and policies are mostly

being availed by big farmers. Farmers blame the state and Central governments for their present

condition as most of them allege that they do not get any farming-related information from

officials of the agriculture department.

Factors such as geographical conditions, eating habits, socio economic conditions, awareness

level, laws concerning agriculture, etc. have an impact on the farming practices being followed

by the farmers. Nearly half of the farmers grow two crops in a year. In areas having assured

irrigation, farmers grow three crops in a year. Paddy and wheat are the important crops grown in

the country. Majority of the farmers are still using traditional seeds. Some are using hybrid seeds

also but the use of GM seeds is very limited. Selection of seed type is influenced by the

availability of a market for their produce in the area.

Irrigation facility is available to farmers through river canals, mainly in North and South India,

although about half of the farmers have their own bore wells for irrigation. Besides, canals and

own bore wells farmers also irrigate the crops through ponds, wells and government tube wells.

Farmers are also using sprinklers for irrigation. Drip Irrigation is used most widely in West India

probably due to less availability of water in part of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The use of organic

fertilizers is more common in South and while farmers in East India depend heavily on chemical

fertilizers. Farmers use chemical fertilizers as they feel that it quickens cultivation. A substantial

number of farmers use it as a compulsion. Farmers know that using pesticides is detrimental to

the environment and they are harmful for humans. Our data shows that about one third farmer

uses pesticides only when they are needed, one in ten never use them on any crop and about one

third use them on some crops only. However, every fourth farmer still uses pesticides on all

crops. Other reasons for not using pesticides on all crops could be either the high cost or

unawareness about the type of pesticide to be used.

Indian farmers face many problems, many of which are mainly related to crop cultivation. The

primary concern of the farmer which emerged from the survey was related to income and

economy. Farmers feel that this problem is a function of decrease in production, depressed

economy and increased labour costs. Even if the desired production level is achieved, market

related issues concern the farmer viz. such as low prices for their produce, fewer customers,

availability of limited market, unawareness about the competitive market and competition from

large companies. Other problem like floods and droughts; irrigation and technology availability

were also cited as the constraints in crop production. Though problems associated with crop

cultivation are present throughout the country, there are regional variations in the primary

concerns of the farmers. Since crop production is at the mercy of nature, about three fourth of the

farmers had faced a crop destruction in the last three years. The problem of crop failure was

reported most by the farmers from the East, which may be due to fact that this region is more

flood prone than other regions. Other reported factors of crop destruction were drought, insects

and pests.

Against the popular perception that farmers commit suicide due to crop failure leading to

increased debt, majority of the farmers reported that that domestic problem was the reason for

suicide; still credit and loan also were major factors too. However, geographical variation was

evident in the survey for the reasons of suicide. Farmers of west and south committed suicide

mainly due to loan, whereas domestic reasons were responsible in central and east India.

The rural households now understand the importance of education which is reflected by the fact

that a large number of farmers reported that they were concerned about their children’s

education. Farming and employment were other important worries for farmers. Treatment of ill

family members in their household is another major cause of worry as it could be heavy financial

burden.

Recommendations

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy and sustenance of agriculture, thus assumes

significance. Therefore, based on the survey findings and prevailing conditions and rural

households, following are recommended for efficient, inclusive and sustainable development in

crop production leading to well being of rural households.

i. Land Reforms: Land reforms are a must to address the basic issue of access to land for

crops. Land holdings pattern of the country need to be corrected by ceiling and

consolidation. Distribution of ceiling-surplus and waste lands to marginal and landless

farmers may be done. Prime agricultural land with a potential to grow multiple crops

during the year need not be put to non agricultural use.

ii. Rural Infrastructure: Attention need to be given on rural infrastructure like irrigation

systems, road connectivity for access to urban market, development of market to insure

profitable sale of farm produce, supply of electricity for running Government Tube Wells

or Farmer Own Bore Wells which propel agriculture growth.

iii. Water and Irrigation: Since availability of water is a major constraint in successfully

growing even a single crop in a year, a comprehensive set of reforms to enable farmers to

have sustained and equitable access to water is needed. Tube wells and bore wells are the

major source of irrigation, thus policy on ground water recharge through rainwater

harvesting needs to be formulated.

iv. Farm Productivity: Farm productivity is a function of biological inputs like seed, non-

biological inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, etc; management practices and the

environment. Therefore, for sustained and increased farm productivity, it is

recommended to ensure adequate and timely supply of certified seeds suited to micro

climate at a reasonable price, easy access to advanced soil test based farm level fertilizer

recommendation and availability of genuine farm chemicals at a reasonable price to

farmers.

v. Credit and Insurance: Majority of Indian farmers are poor and therefore it is

recommended to provide easy access to farm credit with easy repayment options

particularly to really poor and needy. Introduce farm credit insurance at nominal rate

linked to inability of the farmer to repay the loan to control credit linked suicides besides

expanding the scope of crop insurance to all the grown crops with loss assessment at

individual level.

vi. Competitiveness of Farmers: Development of farmer groups based on the commodity

grown by them to centralize production, post harvest management, value addition, and

marketing and to provide a voice for their concern.

vii. Employment Opportunity for Rural Households: The workforce engaged in

agriculture is getting attracted towards other occupations due to non availability of work

throughout the year in agriculture and the economic hardships associated with it.

Therefore, other work avenues need to be created for engaging the farm workforce during

non agriculture months at or near their dwellings will keep them engaged locally.

viii. Farmer Awareness: Action plan involving state government must be prepared and

implemented for creating adequate publicity among rural households about various

schemes and policies being implemented by the government so that benefit of the

schemes is availed by those for whom it is intended.

Thus, we hope that the findings of this report and the questions that the report raises lead to a

new debate on the state of Indian farmers in the mainstream policy discourse. We also believe

that empirical evidence presented in this report shall help demystify many myths attached to

Indian agriculture and provide policy makers with a deep understanding of the present condition

of Indian agriculture.

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State of Indian Farmer A Survey - CSDS · etc. Even under British colonial rule, India’s economy...

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