Situation Assessment Survey Research Articles

Informal Credits in India’s Agriculture Sector: Debt Incidence, Size and Distribution across Major Farm-size Groups

Until recently, studies on agricultural finance in India mostly focus on farmers’ access to formal credits, thereby largely sidelining their informal borrowings. This study makes an effort to present an analysis of farmers’ informal debts and their distribution across the major farm-size groups in India. The study uses unit-level data from the 77th round ‘Situation Assessment Survey (SAS)’ of agricultural households conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), Government of India (GOI), during January–December, 2019. Data were collected for the reference period of July 2018–June 2019. We use descriptive statistics and multivariate regression procedures for analysis. Results show that about one-half of the borrowers continue to depend on informal credit sources—partially or fully. Informal sources also account for about one-third of the total debt of the agricultural households. Informal debt incidence (IDI) and informal debt share (IDS) are found to be higher among the smallholders. Our findings are imperative of policy measures to improve the current state of the antecedents of formal credit access to benefit the otherwise high default risk and credit-rationed smallholders. Future studies may focus on formal credit rationing, informal credit terms and repayment burden of the agricultural households in India.

Rising Wage Income and the Role of MGNREGA among Agricultural Households in India: Evidence from the Situation Assessment Survey, 2018–19

Rising Wage Income and the Role of MGNREGA among Agricultural Households in India: Evidence from the Situation Assessment Survey, 2018–19

Impact of India’s farm science centers (Krishi Vigyan Kendras) on farm households’ economic welfare: An evidence from a national farmers’ survey

This study examines the impact of access to India’s farm science centers (Krishi Vigyan Kendras, or KVKs) on agricultural households’ welfare using household data from the nationally representative Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted by India’s National Sample Survey Office in 2013. Employing different matching techniques and endogenous switching regression models, it was observed that the KVKs have a positive and statistically significant impact on agricultural households’ economic welfare, although, that impact is heterogeneous. Further, the investments made in expansion of India’s network of KVKs have been quite remunerative, as the benefit- to-cost ratio of expenditure on KVKs ranges from 8–12. Moreover, present findings suggest that expanding rural formal credit markets and promoting literacy can maximize the potential impact of KVKs on agricultural households’ economic welfare.

The Effectiveness, Accessibility, and Feasibility of Price Policy Mechanism in India: Evidence from the Situation Assessment Survey 2018–2019

India’s agricultural price policy came under serious criticism in the past for its inefficiencies and the financial burden that it puts on the state exchequer. Using the household-level Situation Assessment Survey, published by the National Statistical Office (NSO), this study inspects the effectiveness, accessibility, and feasibility of price policy mechanisms in India. It is found that farmers’ income in India has been increasing at a slower rate and the share of income from crop cultivation has been declining over the years. However, farmers who have received the benefits of minimum support price (MSP) and procurement mechanism, reported having a better income as compared to farmers who sell to the local market right after harvest. Indian agriculture is dominated by small and marginal farmers operating on less than two hectares of land. They are more vulnerable to shocks, such as climate change, price crashes, and post-harvest loss. This study critically evaluates the operation of price policy with special reference to the landholding classes of the farmers. It finds that MSP played an important role in keeping the market prices high and ensuring a better return. However, the reach of MSP has been limited to a few crops and in selected states.

Quantifying Vulnerability to Poverty in Rural Manipur: A Study of Agricultural Households from NSSO 70th Round Data

Poverty is a stochastic phenomenon as the economic status of a household can change in the face of shocks and in the absence of resources to mitigate the effect of shocks. Thus, a static measure of poverty may not be very reliable for policy formulation. This article attempts to analyse the level of vulnerability to poverty across rural agricultural households by using 3 stage feasible generalized least square (3S FGLS) method and examines the determinants of households’ vulnerability to poverty by logistic regression. In addition, a concerted effort is made to explore the similarities and differences between the determinants of vulnerability and those of poverty. The study used NSSO 70th round (2012–2013) Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households data. The analysis reveals most of the determinants of poverty and vulnerability to be similar although it differs in strength on the impacts and significance level. The FGLS estimates show that the vulnerability of household level is much higher at 50.07% as compared to poverty rate, which is at 43.52% in the study area. Education of the household head, diversification of economic activities and social safety nets are found to be very significant in reducing vulnerability of a household. The safety nets are found to be not significant in reducing poverty. Nonetheless, they are effective in anchoring the vulnerable households against falling into poverty in the study area.

Role of agricultural marketing channels in price realization: an empirical analysis of selected crops in India

PurposeThe provision of fair and remunerative prices to farmers through government intervention is one of the key debates to address the farmers' distress in India. This article identifies how different marketing channels are responsible for higher price realization over the officially announced minimum support price (MSP).Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the NSSO-SAS, 2012–13 and NSSO-SAS, 2018–19 for Aggregate level data and Unit Level Data on the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers' households. It uses logit regression to determine the factors responsible for better price realization.FindingsOur major findings indicate that two factors importantly determine better price realization than MSP. Firstly, government agencies provide better prices for crops covered by MSP, such as paddy, wheat and cotton. However, the probability of receiving higher prices increases for some crops if the farmers belong to the upper land size classes and upper social category. Secondly, jowar, bajra, maize and ragi, other important crops that don't benefit from government agencies, may require higher levels of procurement at the state level.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study only analyzes selected major crops. Distance is an important factor in choosing a marketing channel that is not incorporated due to unavailability in NSS Data.Originality/valueThe study is based on the latest original empirical evidence and sheds light on the variation in price realization in different agricultural marketing channels in India.

Is Minimum Support Price Effective in India? Evidence from State-wise Paddy Procurement

Aims: The paper tries to examine the effectiveness of the minimum support price (MSP) policy based on empirical data on price deviations as well as the procurement of paddy crops by various agencies. The cost and gross margin of cultivation are also analysed to add further reliability to the overall assessment of MSP policy.
 Data and Methodology: The effectiveness of price policy is examined by studying farm harvest price (FHP) with respect to MSP of Paddy. We have calculated the deviations of FHP of paddy from MSP for the entire study period of 1996-2016, where the positive deviations are taken as an indicator of the effectiveness of price policy. Our study has analysed the procurement data published by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare. We also used the unit-level data from the ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households’, 2012-13 of NSSO.
 Results: The MSP policy is found to be effective in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab but ineffective in other major rice-producing states across the country. And in states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, a vast majority of the medium, semi-medium, and small farmers sell their paddy to private agencies, thus making MSP policy for paddy in those states a complete failure. In states such as Haryana and Maharashtra, large farmers are found selling a significant portion of their total marketed surplus to processors.
 Conclusion: Overall, at the national level, procurement by government agencies (which stands at 17.2 percent) is far from satisfactory. The policy implication calls for enhancing paddy procurement by government agencies across the farming groups rather than concentrating only on medium and large farmers.

Status and Changes in Composition of Agricultural Household’s Income in India

The study used the NSSO’s Situation Assessment Survey from 2012-13 and 2018-19 to determine the current status and changes in the composition of agricultural household income. During the agricultural years 2012-13 and 2018-19, an agricultural household’s total nominal farm income increased at an annual rate of 9.61 per cent, while real income increased at a rate of 3.42 per cent. Assuming the projected growth trends in nominal and real income continue, the nominal income of agricultural households will take 7.5 years to double at All India levels, while the real income will take 21 years. The income composition of an agricultural household changed throughout the same period. The average annual percentage change in income from wages and salaries (10.37%) and from animal sources (6.14%) grew positively throughout the period, whereas crop (-1.25%) and non-farm business (-0.94%) grew negatively. 12 per cent increase in the share of wages and salaries in overall income was discovered and a corresponding reduction in crop income. In the agricultural year 2018-19, Rajasthan had the largest diversity in income sources (SID=0.43), and Andhra Pradesh had the lowest (SID=0.25), while All India had (SID=0.35). The result indicates that agricultural households are shifting their dependency for livelihood from crop income towards wages and salaries.

Newborn Screening Long-Term Follow-Up Clinics (Continuity Clinics) in the Philippines during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Continuing Quality Patient Care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged healthcare systems worldwide. In the Philippines, long-term care for patients with conditions identified through newborn screening (NBS) is coordinated through Newborn Screening Continuity Clinics (NBSCCs). These clinics are integral to achieving optimal outcomes by providing follow-up oversight and assistance for individuals identified through screening. Continuity of NBSCC care for NBS during the COVID-19 pandemic was both challenging and necessary and was accomplished through innovative strategies of dedicated personnel. Following the discontinuation of the community quarantine, a situation assessment survey was completed by each NBSCC to better understand the challenges encountered and their effect on patient care. Performance data from each NBSCC were reviewed both before and after an extended community quarantine (2018-2021) to evaluate the impact of NBSCC disaster contingency plans in overcoming the resultant challenges (transportation, supply chain, etc.). Thematic analysis of the survey showed three primary challenges: Operations, communications, and safety. In 2018 and 2019, successful patient contacts were 70.6% and 70.2%, respectively. During the pandemic, successful contacts were 74.9% in 2020 and 76.8% in 2021, demonstrating that the contact approaches taken by the NBSCCs were sufficient to maintain (and even improve) patient contacts. The number of unresponsive patients decreased during the pandemic likely due to decreased mobility and improved follow-up actions from the NBSCCs.

The economic situation of the Indian farmers: some findings from the NSSO 59th round

The theme of this lecture was understanding of the economic situation of the Indian farmers based on the findings from the NSSO 59th round ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’. Many aspects of Indian farming are discussed that include farmers’ desire not to continue with farming, input usage scenario, adoption of risk mitigation strategies such as crop insurance, membership in cooperatives etc. Importantly this lecture provides an all India scenario as well as presents state level diversities. It brings out critical issues confronting the farm sector such as land use pattern, energy usage as well as the farmers’ consumption pattern and poverty.

Understanding Sustenance of Small Farm Holders: A Study of Income Inequality among Farm Households in Indian Punjab

The sustenance of marginal and small farm households is a pertinent question given that their number is on the rise in South-Asia. The study aims to assess their present socio-economic profile and the challenges faced in order to draw a roadmap of development for these underprivileged households. The study pertains to Indian Punjab and data from the Situation Assessment Survey of the 70th Round of NSSO are used. The concepts of economic surplus, occupational diversity, farm productivity and vertical and horizontal inequalities are used to achieve the objectives. This study reveals that marginal farm households faced food insecurity as they failed to meet consumption expenditure from the income earned. In fact, small farm households are left with an annual economic surplus of Rs 8890 per capita only, after meeting consumption needs. Income is unevenly distributed among farm households with a Gini coefficient of 0.48. The majority of the marginal and small farm households fall in lower-income quintiles and are occupationally more diversified than their larger counterparts. Horizontal inequalities are lower between the farm-size categories (0.14) than within farm-size categories (0.27). The Gini coefficient within each farm-size category is the highest among marginal farm households (0.50), followed by small farm households (0.45), highlighting their economic stress and tug-of-war survival. Further, the farm households belonging to socially lower castes falls only in the marginal farm-size category and represent the lowest income. Development must be sustainable and inclusive, hence, policies to develop marginal farmers’ centric farming systems and high value crops such as potato, cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds, providing high yielding livestock breeds, value addition through farmer-producer organizations, non-farm employment through MGNREGA, provision of institutional credit at subsidised rate of interest and quality health and education facilities in the public sector are recommended to uplift the affected households.

Determinants of Livelihood Diversification of Farm Households in Rural India: Evidence From National Sample Survey

The lives of rural households are predominantly based on agriculture and its allied activities. However, there are signs of an agricultural crisis resulting in dependence on alternative sources of income. This paper analyzes the factors that influence the decision of farm households to participate in non-farm activities for alternative income. The official data for two years on the Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households are explored and a pooled probit regression model is run to examine the determinants of income diversification. Our findings reveal that farm income and irrigated land negatively influence diversification. However, diversification of those having lower access to farm holdings, socioeconomic deprivation, and improved access to education, informal credit, and crop insurance point out positive participation in non-farm enterprises. In addition, the population belonging to hilly and coastal plain regions and the age group 30–64 years are more likely to diversify.

Impact evaluation of seed replacement on pulse productivity in India

Pulses are traditionally an essential part of the Indian diet and primary protein source for the poorer and the vegetarian population in the country. Pulse productivity has been stagnant in India due to the widespread use of low-quality farm-saved seeds and low seed replacement rates. The present study was carried out during 2019–20 to assess the drivers of seed replacement and its ex-post impact on yields of chickpea and pigeonpea in India. The study is based on the data on 1764 chickpea and 944 pigeonpea farmers from the nationally representative Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted during 2013. A probit model was used to study the drivers of seed replacement, and coarsened exact matching technique used to assess the impact on yields causally. We found that access to irrigation and institutional credit can increase seed replacement and result in increased chickpea productivity. Chickpea farmers in districts under the National Food Security Mission on pulses (NFSM-pulses) are more likely to be replacing seeds. In pigeonpea, access to irrigation alone is the key driver. Further, using coarsened exact matching estimation, we found that seed replacement is indeed beneficial for chickpea farmers and would lead to increased chickpea productivity in India.

Estimation of Potential Economic Benefits of Livestock Farming in Rural Madhya Pradesh

The study was carried out using the secondary data on income, expenditure, productive assets and indebtedness of agricultural households in Madhya Pradesh collected from the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in 70th round (2012-13). The household level data on various parameters was first extracted for Madhya Pradesh and brought into suitable form for carrying out analysis in SPSS. Tabular analysis was employed to analyze the potential economic benefits of livestock farming. The findings revealed that marginal and small farmers earned only 26-27 per cent of income of large farm households. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes who constitutes nearly 43.5 per cent of total farm households in Madhya Pradesh earns only 33.8 and 33.4 per cent, respectively of the income of OBC farmers. Among the regions, farmers in the northern and central regions of the state earn the highest income while those in the southern and vindhya regions earn the lowest income. in spite of farmers’ high satisfaction in selling milk to cooperatives (72-75%), the share of cooperatives and government agencies was very less in procuring milk from farm households (3-5.5%) in the state.

Determinants of financial inclusion in rural India: does gender matter?

PurposeSince finance is an efficacious instrument for economic development, social inclusion and women empowerment, the present paper examines the determinants of accessing institutional and non-institutional finance across male- and female-headed households in rural India.Design/methodology/approachMultinomial logistic regression is applied for categorizing households' accessing finance in four categories, namely Only Institutional Finance (IF), Only Non-institutional Finance (NIF), Both Sources of Finance (BF) and Neither Source of Finance (N). Both household and state-level determinants have been analysed. Household data set is sourced from the Situation Assessment Survey (NSSO, 70th round) and state-level data sets from Basic Road Statistics 2016, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance 2016, Rainfall Statistics of India 2014, database on Indian Economy RBI and Census 2011. Econometric regressions have been evaluated for female-headed households (FHHs), male-headed households (MHHs) and overall pooled households (HHs).FindingsFour important findings emerge. First, FHHs have a lower probability of accessing IF and a higher probability of accessing NIF vis-a-vis MHHs. Second, in general, education levels, monthly household consumption expenditure, land size holding, irrigated area and penetration of scheduled commercial banks favourably influence FHHs accessing IF. Third, FHHs belonging to socially disadvantaged castes have a lower probability of accessing IF. Fourth, a substantial proportion of FHHs accesses neither IF nor NIF relative to MHHs.Practical implicationsThe paper thoroughly addresses the issue of accessing finance by FHHs and MHHs, which will further assist policymakers in formulating holistic financial policies for rural India.Social implicationsThe paper recommends increasing women's access to financial services as an effective tool for reducing poverty and lowering income inequality in rural India.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the scant empirical literature on finance and gender.

Issues and Challenges of MSP as an Income Enhancement Approach in India

Given the proliferating agricultural crisis and cumulative farmer distress, minimum support price (MSP) as an income enhancement approach in Indian agriculture has been contextualised in this study using the unit-level data of NSSO on Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households (2013). The study tries to understand level of awareness and accessibility of MSP, magnitude of difference among the states and reasons for poor accessibility. The classification of states based on awareness about MSP and procuring agencies (PA) and magnitude of sale to PA at MSP shows that Bihar, including the North-Eastern states of Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, is the low-ranking state. Although MSP works as a safety net for market risk, low level of awareness, pre-harvest sale and non-availability of PA are some of the important issues which need to be addressed for achieving the goals.

Interlink between factor and product markets: Opportunity for the future of Indian agriculture

Farm households' choice of where to sell the product (marketing channel) is endogenous to the decision of where to buy inputs (selection of an input source). Using the latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) Situation Assessment Survey data, and endogenous switching probit regression (ESPR), this study evaluates the impact of input market selection on the choice of (formal) product market. Compared to farm households selling to informal markets, those selling to formal product markets had significantly higher profit per unit of land. Households buying inputs from formal sources like cooperatives and government agencies were 50% more likely to choose formal channels.

Short-Term Migration and Children’s School Attendance: Evidence from Rural India

Every year, millions of individuals from rural India migrate internally for short periods in search of employment. Temporary migration of parents can affect school attendance of children from these families. This study uses data from National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) Situation Assessment Survey 2013 to examine whether having a short-term migrant member in the family affects school attendance of children aged 6–10 years in rural India. An estimate from logit regression suggests that controlling for individual and family characteristics, village, district controls and NSSO state-region fixed effects, being from a migrant family reduces the probability that a child aged 6–10 years attends school by 15%. A series of robustness checks are done to ascertain the reliability of our finding. First, we assess the extent of potential omitted variable bias and find that our results remain unchanged even after controlling for bias. Second, we use instrumental variable approach since short-term migration of parents and school attendance of children can be driven by unobserved factors. In this method, the presence of a short-term migrant in the family is instrumented by lagged proportion of short-term migrants and lagged proportion of construction workers in the district. Our results remain robust to various specifications.

Doubling farmer's income: The case of India

AbstractAgriculture, in most of the developing and under‐developed countries, is the primary sector responsible for employment and livelihood of the majority of population, especially rural. This sector is entrusted with the responsibility of poverty alleviation in rural areas and contribution to overall economic growth. Hence, designing optimal policy and setting objectives have always been a concern area for the policy‐makers. In the last fiscal year, policy objective of doubling farmer income by the year 2022 was announced by the government. This paper analyzes the historical aspects of doubling of farmer's income using the National Sample Survey Office's situation assessment survey and draws projection for the future at degenerate level across land holding and states. This paper reviews the optimal mix of policies that should be adopted by the government to successful double the farmer’s income. The paper also presents a comparative analysis with such policy objective being successfully achieved in Chinese economy.

Farm size, livelihood diversification and farmer’s income in India

The basic objective of this study is to analyse the role of farm size and diversification in determining farmer’s total income from both farm and non-farm sources. Using data from NSS 70th Round Situation Assessment Survey, we estimate a log-linear regression model that relates farmer’s income to farm size, on-farm and off-farm diversification, and various other control factors representing farm, household and locational characteristics. We estimate this model for total income over the whole year and separately for the two seasons, kharif and rabi. We find that farm size has a negative relationship with farmer’s income per capita after controlling for various factors. Our results also lend support to our hypothesis that there is an optimal level of diversification that maximizes farmer’s income. We find that the optimal number of crops to be engaged in is 2 in both seasons, 2 animal husbandry activities in both seasons, 4 non-farm activities in kharif and 3 non-farm activities in rabi season. Comparing these estimates with the actual levels as per the NSS data shows that farmers on an average are already engaged in the optimal number of crops, but they are at sub-optimal level in terms of animal husbandry and non-farm activities. We also find that there is a minimum threshold level of education, viz., “Literate with Formal Schooling”, required to improve income levels. NSS data show that on an average, marginal and small farmers who constitute nearly 85 per cent of agricultural households have an education level below this threshold. Thus, improving their education levels is another point for policy intervention that can help raise their income levels. Another interesting finding from our analysis is that participating in MGNREGS may have an adverse impact on income levels, possibly via the opportunity cost of time spent in such public works.