Incidence and Determinants of Poverty among Marginal and Small Farmers-A Case Study of Kaithal District

Abstract

The present paper attempts to examine the incidence of poverty among marginal and small farmers in rural areas of Kaithal district of Haryana. For the purpose of the present study, one village has been selected from each development block of the district on random basis. A representative proportional sample of 173 households comprising the marginal and small farmers has been taken for the survey. The incidence of income based poverty shows that by taking the poverty measure of 50 per cent per capita income of the state, 98.14 per cent of total farming population is living below the poverty line. On the basis of the World Bank's Extreme poverty measure of $1.25 per person per day, 87.10 per cent of the sampled farm population is living below the poverty line. The incidence of consumption based poverty shows that by taking the 50 per cent of per capita consumption expenditure of the state as poverty line 94.62 per cent of total farming population is living below the poverty line. On the basis of the World Bank's Extreme poverty measure of $1.25 per person per days 84.26 per cent of the total farming population is living below poverty line. Incidence of poverty among the marginal farm-size category is more than that of the small farm-size category. The family-size, farm-size, number of earners, per capita income from subsidiary occupations and per capita expenditure on education are the main determinants of income based poverty. The number of dependents, income, education level and repayment of loans are the main determinants of consumption based poverty.