Consider this. Tur, or arhar, a major crop consumed across India in the form of tur dal, is cultivated by about 1 million farmers in Karnataka. But the Department of Agriculture surveys only 89 tur/arhar farmers in the southern state to determine the average cost of tur cultivation.
Though the sample of farmers surveyed to determine the cultivation cost for some crops is sufficient, according to agriculture ministry officials, the sample size for most crops is not just insufficient, but the entire sample survey is riddled with a three-decade-old methodology.
The sample size of 8,100 farmers across 19 states has