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Farmers’ Income, Indebtedness and Agrarian Distress in India


Affiliations
1 ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India
2 ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
3 O P Jindal Global University Sonipat, Haryana, India
     

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The paper examines farmers’ income, indebtedness and suicides. It concludes that income of farmer is low mainly due to low harvest prices, high cost of inputs and small operational holding size. Low incomes coupled with higher consumption needs force small farmers into high-interest debt trap. There is a need to increase public investment in farm infrastructure, strengthen direct benefit transfer schemes for purchase of inputs, improve institutional credit delivery mechanisms and widen safety nets in rural areas. The recent farm policy related to encouraging Farmer Producer Organizations and contract farming could potentially increase small farmers bargaining power and scale economies to utilise market opportunities.

Keywords

Farmers’ Income, Indebtedness, Farmer’s Suicides, Sources of Credit, Agrarian Change.
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  • Farmers’ Income, Indebtedness and Agrarian Distress in India

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Authors

A. Amarender Reddy
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India
S. S. Raju
ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
Arnab Bose
O P Jindal Global University Sonipat, Haryana, India

Abstract


The paper examines farmers’ income, indebtedness and suicides. It concludes that income of farmer is low mainly due to low harvest prices, high cost of inputs and small operational holding size. Low incomes coupled with higher consumption needs force small farmers into high-interest debt trap. There is a need to increase public investment in farm infrastructure, strengthen direct benefit transfer schemes for purchase of inputs, improve institutional credit delivery mechanisms and widen safety nets in rural areas. The recent farm policy related to encouraging Farmer Producer Organizations and contract farming could potentially increase small farmers bargaining power and scale economies to utilise market opportunities.

Keywords


Farmers’ Income, Indebtedness, Farmer’s Suicides, Sources of Credit, Agrarian Change.

References