Situation assessment of Indian farmers in
21st Century
The National Statistical Office’s (NSO) is a body under Government of India, recently released a report,
‘Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India, 2019’
Agricultural households are defined as households having at least one member self-employed in farming and whose annual value of produce from such farming activity exceeds Rs 4,000. Farming or “agricultural activity” includes cultivation of crops (field, horticultural, plantation and fodder) as well as animal husbandry (dairying, poultry, goat/sheep-rearing, piggery, inland fishery, beekeeping, sericulture, etc.)
According to the report, India had 93.09 million “agricultural households” in 2018-19.​
Key Finding of the Report
According to report, the national average monthly farm income of agricultural households stands at
Rs. 5,298
90% of agricultural households earn less than Rs. 12,017 per month farm income. 72% agricultural households earn less than Rs.5,298/month from farming.
For an average agricultural household, the largest source of income was daily wages which is Rs 4,063/month This concludes that the average Indian farmer is more of a labourer today.
Small farmers are those with holding less than 5 acres of land. They form 85% of India's farmers. These farmers produce more than 50% of India's food needs. These farmer satisfy India's hunger. The above figures shows the dismissal income they earn from agriculture. This pushes them out of agriculture towards urban cities for employment and fair income. This creates rapid urbanization and population explosion in cities causing so much environmental and human damage. 50 most polluted cities of the world were released recently. 42 out of 50 cities are in India. Indian cities are becoming unlivable while village, where majority of households still depend on agriculture, provides them dismissal income.
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Seconds, if this income doesn't change in course of years, we will see more number of farmers leaving agriculture putting pressure on villages and cites. This will lead to a food crisis and will increase the food inflation throughout India causing price raise for agricultural produce like onion, tomato and other foods products putting a financial pressure on 90% of Indians. Yet, Mainstream media and Union government of India is categorically silent on these issues, putting the future of millions of people in limbo.
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