In 6 years before Covid, India's average farm incomes rose 59% and debt 58%

 Income varied between farming households disaggregated by the size of landholding and between states.

Agricultural households' average monthly income increased by 59% to Rs 10,218 in the six years to 2018-19, per the National Statistical Office's (NSO) Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (SAS) 2019 survey, released on September 10.

The income was calculated after factoring in paid-out costs. When imputed costs--i.e., use of self-owned inputs like machinery and seed stock, owned animals, and unpaid family labor--were factored in, the average monthly income of farmers' households in 2018-19 was Rs 8,337, per the SAS 2019 survey.

Further, income varied significantly between farming households disaggregated by the size of landholding, ranging from Rs 7,500 to Rs 61,000. Nearly nine in 10 farmer households were landless, marginal, or small, i.e. they owned less than 2 hectares (about 5 acres) of land. Their average monthly income in 2018-19 was Rs 9,700. Medium-sized to large farms of over 2 and 10 hectares, respectively, comprising just 12% of farming households, had an average monthly income of Rs 35,000.

Income also varied greatly between states. In large states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, incomes were lower than the national average. Jharkhand and Odisha reported the lowest at Rs 4,985 and Rs 5,112 per month, respectively. Punjab and Haryana reported the highest monthly farmer incomes among large states, at Rs 26,701 and Rs 22,841, respectively.

There was a seven-percentage-point increase in farming households' income from wages and a corresponding decrease in income from farming activities since the 2012-13 SAS survey. The data indicate a worsening in profitability in agriculture overall and a need to supplement farm income with income from other sources, experts told us. Children of farmers were moving out of agriculture and into better-paying professions due to inadequate incomes in the low-productivity agricultural sector, IndiaSpend had reported in July 2019.

SAS 2019 also reported that while half (50.2%) of agricultural households were in debt--slightly less than the 52% that reported indebtedness in the previous survey--the average outstanding loan had gone up by 58% to about Rs 74,000.