Punjab farmers under huge debt: Survey

There is credible evidence that the Punjab farmer is going from bad to worse. According to a survey, "Flow of funds to farmers and indebtedness in Punjab", conducted by department of economics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 89 per cent of the farmers in the state are under debt and 12.8 per cent are those who have very little option other than suicide.

The main reasons of indebtedness, as perceived by the farmers, are the low price of farm produce and high price of inputs. The total indebtedness of the farm sector is estimated at Rs 21,064 crore.

On the recommendation of the Punjab State Farmers' Commission, three economic experts from the PAU, Sukhpal Singh, Manjeet Kaur and HS Kingra, carried out a survey, covering 20 blocks of 11 districts, in Punjab.

The random sample survey comprised 600 farm households, including 107 marginal farm households, 150 small farms, 153 semi-medium farms, 87 medium farms and 103 large farms for the reference year 2005-06.

According to the survey, indebtedness is the highest in the south-western region, followed by central region. In the cotton belt all farm household groups are highly indebted.

The total debt per sample farm household from both the institutional and non-institutional sources was Rs 1,78,934 ie Rs 50,140 per hectare during 2005-06. The debt per indebted farm in the state was Rs 2,01,427.