More than 68% of marginal farmers are engaged in non-farming activities such as daily wager labour activities, especially in construction of roads and houses, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to supplement their income from crop cultivation, according to a survey on the state of marginal farmers in India.
The survey conducted across 20 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, has estimated the average landholding of marginal farmers at 1.22 acres.
The survey also states that median landholding of marginal farmers is 1 acre. According to the Agriculture Census (2015-16), average landholding of marginal farmers is 0.95 acres. Marginal farmers predominantly grow paddy, wheat, maize and mustard. It states that 60% of the farmers with small landholdings grow paddy while wheat is grown by 43% of the farmers. About 32% of the farmers surveyed sold their crops — paddy, wheat, soyabean, maize and cotton to the government agencies, which carry out minimum support price (MSP) operations.
The survey by Development Intelligence Unit, a collaborative venture between Transforming Rural India Foundation and Sambodhi, has stated that “84% of marginal farmers are not willing to quit farming and are not interested in selling off their land to pursue other economic activities, in spite of low profits and natural calamities.” The survey has stated that small holders are not willing to sell their land but think of leaving crop cultivation as an occupation.
The survey has stated that 53% of marginal farmers take loans from formal channels such as banks while 33% access credit from money lenders and 14% from informal sources such as relatives and friends.
“More than two third of marginal farmers avail loans for personal use like housing, marriage, medical and education and 32% of loans are taken for productive purposes like purchase of implements, expenditure on inputs and other non-farming business,” according to the survey.
It has stated that marginal farming households are frequently in debt due to limited income opportunities, and they may not be efficient in the use of inputs and hence require considerable hand holding of the government.
The survey was conducted telephonically on 6,115 small-holder farmers. More than 54% of respondents have stated that farming has been impacted by natural calamity
The survey found high awareness of different government schemes with close to 80% of farmers being aware of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sammaan Nidhi (PMKISAN) Scheme, 55% knew about the Kisan Credit Card and 48.9% were aware of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.