Status of agri households in India

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) is an organization under the Ministry of Statistics of the Government of India. It regularly conduct socio-economic surveys and the largest such organization to do so. The employees of NSSO belong to Indian Statistical Service and Subordinate Statistical Service.

The NSSO conducted Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households in its 70th round (January – December, 2013). The detailed results of this survey will be brought out through a series of three reports. In order to make available the salient results of the survey to the data users, well in advance of the release of the main reports, NSSO has released the key indicators of situation of agricultural households in India. NSSO conducted a similar survey on ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ during January - December, 2003 in the rural areas of the country as part of its 59th round.

An agricultural household for this survey was defined as a household receiving value of produce, more than Rs.3000/- from agricultural and having at least one member self-employed in agriculture either in the principal status or in subsidiary status during last 365 days.

The results of the survey are based on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO, consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union Territories. A total number of 35,200 households were surveyed in first visit and 34,907 of them could be re-surveyed in second visit. Some salient findings of the survey regarding situation of agricultural households in the country are as follows:

Number of Agricultural households

During the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013, rural India had an estimated total of 90.2 million agricultural households, which constituted about 57.8 percent of the total estimated rural households of the country during the same period. Out of the total estimated agricultural households in the country, about 45 percent belonged to Other Backward Classes. About 16 per cent agricultural households were from Scheduled Castes and 13 percent from Scheduled Tribes.

Source of Income of Agricultural households

Principal source of income of agricultural households is largely determined by the extent of land possession. Agricultural activity (cultivation, livestock and other agricultural activities) was reported to be the principal source of income for majority of the agricultural households in all the major States, except Kerala where about 61 percent of the agricultural households reported to have received maximum income from sources other than agricultural activities.

Possession of Land by Agricultural households

About 0.1 percent of the estimated agricultural households in rural India were landless. About 93 percent of agricultural households in the country possessed some type of land other than ‘homestead land only’ and little less than 7 percent possessed only homestead land.

Around 78.5 percent of the agricultural households did not possess any land outside the village they were residing during the survey period. Among the households reported land possession outside the village, about 17.5 percent had land within the State itself and about 4 percent had land outside the State.

Income, investment and indebtedness

About 52 percent of the agricultural households in the country were estimated to be indebted. Among the major States, Andhra Pradesh had the highest share of indebted agricultural households in the country (92.9 percent) followed by Telengana (89.1 percent) and Tamil Nadu (82.5 percent).

In rural India, about 60 percent of the amount of outstanding loans taken by the agricultural households was taken from the institutional sources, which included Government (2.1 percent), Co-operative society (14.8 percent) and banks (42.9 percent).

Farming practices, crop insurance etc.

Of the estimated 90.2 million agricultural households in the country, 86.5 percent households were engaged in crop production during the period July 2012- December 2012. The average gross cropped area per agricultural household during this period was 0.937 hectare.

The survey results indicated that very small segment of agricultural households utilized crop insurance. Lack of awareness was the most reported reason by the agricultural households for not insuring their crops during the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, conducted a survey on Land and Livestock Holdings in the rural areas of the country as a part of NSS 70th Round during January, 2013 to December, 2013.

NSSO has released the key indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India based on the data collected in the 70thRound Survey. The detailed results of the survey are planned to be released in two main reports, one on ‘Household ownership and Operational holdings in India’ and the other on ‘Livestock holdings in India’.

Key Indicators of Debt and Investment in India for 2013

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the key indicators of debt and investment in India, generated from the data collected during January 2013 to December 2013 in its 70th round survey. NSS All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) are conducted decennially starting from 26th round (1971-1972) and the last survey was conducted in NSS 59th round (January to December, 2003).

Some salient findings of (i) Household Assets, (ii) Household Indebtedness and (iii) Fixed Capital Expenditure obtained from the survey are as follows:

Around 98% of rural households and around 94% of urban households in India owned some physical and financial assets as on 30.06.2012. Average value of assets (AVA) owned by a household was Rs. 10.07 lakh for the rural areas and Rs. 22.85 lakh for the urban areas.

Land and building were found to be the two major components of household assets. In the rural areas, landand buildings together, accounted for 94% share in the total value of assets at the national level - with land 73 percentage points and buildings 21 percentage points. In the urban areas, land and buildings together, accounted for about 92% share in the total value of assets - with land 47 percentage points and buildings 45 percentage points.

About 31% of the rural households and 22% of the urban households reported debt (cash loan) outstanding as on 30.6.12. The average amount of debt (AOD) for a rural household was Rs. 32,522 and that for an urban household was Rs. 84,625.

As on 30.6.12, the `debt-asset` ratio at the all-India level was 3.7% for urban areas and 3.23% for rural areas. Around 31% of the rural households and 15.2% of the urban households reported fixed capital expenditure and the average amount of expenditure for fixed capital formation is Rs. 10,717 in rural and Rs. 14,493 urban India.

Among the social groups, in rural India, IOI (16.9%) was lowest for ST households and highest (35.7%) for OBC households. On the other hand, AOD was lowest for ST households (Rs. 9,610) and highest for ‘Others’ households (Rs. 44,565). In urban India, the lowest IOI was again that of the ST households (16.4%) and the highest that of OBC (26.0%).

The results of the survey show that non-institutional agencies played a major role in advancing credit to the households, particularly in rural India. The non-institutional agencies had advanced credit to 19% of rural households, while the institutional agencies had advanced credit to 17% households.

In urban India, the picture is different; the institutional agencies appear to have played a major role, advancing credit to 15% of households against 10% by non-institutional agencies. -Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.