Rich farmers use electric pumps, poor use diesel

Farmers in India's poorer states depend on diesel pumps to draw water for irrigation. Electric pumps, which are cheaper to operate, particularly since power is supplied virtually free of cost to agriculture, are mainly used by farmers better off.

These are the findings of a survey on farmers carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).

Two-thirds of Indian farmers pumping water for irrigation used diesel pumps. These farmers were concentrated in Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. All poor states had a bad record in provision of electricity

In Bihar, 97 per cent of farm households irrigated land by using diesel water pumps, followed by 87 per cent in West Bengal.

"Diesel pumps are more expensive to operate than electric pumps, particularly as electricity is supplied virtually free to agriculture. This means that the better-off farmers are the ones benefiting from subsidised electricity. Poorer farmers still work with diesel pumps, which are more expensive to operate," said an economist.

The study conducted by the NSSO, at the behest of the ministry of agriculture, also found that the incidence of use of electric pumps increased steadily with the size of land owned.

Only 10 per cent of farmers with holdings of less than 0.01 hectares used electric pumps. In holdings of over 10 hectares, the percentage went up to 73.

In the lowest land-holding class, 5 per cent of respondents, reporting energy use for irrigation, used animal power.

The survey covered the period between January and December, 2003. A sample of 51,770 farmer households spread over 6,638 villages in the country were covered in the survey. Two visits were made to each household to collect information for kharif and rabi seasons separately.