Half of rural agricultural households indebted: NSS data

NEW DELHI: Almost half of the rural agricultural households are indebted across India with an average outstanding loan amount per agricultural household being way more than the below poverty line income for rural India, as per the latest dataset of the National Statistical Survey (NSS) released on Friday.

The percentage of indebted agricultural households stood at 50.2 per cent while the average amount (Rs) of outstanding loan per agricultural household stood at Rs 74,121, the 77th round of the survey conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019 showed.

The survey theme was "Land and Livestock Holdings of Households and Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households" in the rural areas of India with an integrated schedule of enquiry.

Prior to the 77th round, Land and Livestock Holding Surveys (LHS) and Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households used to be conducted as separate surveys in separate sets of households.

For calculating indebtedness of agricultural households, the information on the amount of outstanding loan as on date of survey (i.e., the day on which data was collected from the household) was collected from each of the surveyed agricultural households.

The NSS also found out the average monthly income per agricultural household for which it collected information on the receipts and expenditures relating to crop production, farming of animals and non-farm business, separately for the two halves of the agricultural year July 2018 - June 2019. (IANS)

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