Socio-economic Characteristics of Farmers in Rural Punjab: An Inter-Category Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study examined the socio-economic characteristics of farm households in the rural areas of Punjab. For this purpose, the data were collected from the 510 farm households from the villages which were further randomly selected from the high, medium and low productivity regions of Punjab. The results revealed that most of the farm households belonged to the General Castes and Sikh religion. About 70 percent of persons appeared in the economically active age group of 15 to 59 years. The sex ratio had been es against the females among all the farm-size categories. The proportion of farm households living in the joint type family was positively associated with the farm size. Most of the persons of the marginal and small farm-size categories were illiterate and with relatively low level of education as compared to the semi-medium, medium and large farm-size categories. The proportionate share of earners was the highest for the small farm-size category and the lowest for the semi-medium farm-size category. About 99 percent of sampled farmers owned either pucca or semi-pucca houses. The proportion of sampled farmers who owned good condition houses, bathrooms and toilets were directly related to the farm size. About 92 and 96 percent of farm households had separate kitchen and gas connections, respectively. LPG was a major fuel used in the kitchen and owned RO was the major source of drinking water for a majority of sampled farmers in the rural areas of Punjab.