The Hindu : National : "Andhra Pradesh tops in farm indebtedness"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

National

National

"Andhra Pradesh tops in farm indebtedness"

Special Correspondent

43.42 million households under debt

NEW DELHI: Nearly 43.42 million or 48.6 per cent of the total farmer households in the country have each a liability of at least Rs. 300 in cash or kind at the time of any transaction, shows a survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).

At the all-India level of about 147.90 million rural households, 60.4 per cent or about 89.35 million are engaged in farming, the survey on `Indebtedness of farmer households' has estimated.

The report will be followed by four more.

The survey covered 51,770 households in 6,638 villages throughout the country. Of the 43.42 million farmer households, the estimated prevalence of indebtedness was the highest in Andhra Pradesh at 82 per cent, followed by Tamil Nadu (74.5) and Punjab (65.4).

Uttar Pradesh topped in the estimated number of indebted farmer households totalling 6.9 million, followed by Andhra Pradesh (4.9 million) and Maharashtra (3.6 million).

Rural households owning one hectare or less accounted for 66 per cent of the farming community and 45 per cent of them were indebted.

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