Food bowl states Punjab and Haryana rank third, fourth in agri debt burden

Farmers of India’s food bowl -- Punjab and Haryana -- are among the most indebted in the country. With an outstanding debt of Rs 2.03 lakh and Rs 1.83 lakh per agricultural household, Punjab and Haryana have the dubious distinction of being at No. 3 and 4, respectively.

Only Andhra Pradesh (Rs 2.45 lakh) and Kerala (Rs 2.42 lakh) are ahead of Punjab and Haryana in debt per farm household. The country as a whole has a debt of Rs 74,121 per agricultural family, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in a reply to a question by member Kalipada Saren Kherwal in the Lok Sabha.

The lowest debt per agricultural family is reported by Nagaland at just Rs 1,750, followed by Meghalaya (Rs 2,237) and Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 3,581). The group of UTs reported debt of Rs 25,629 per farm family. In the region, Rajasthan reported a debt of Rs 1.13 lakh, Himachal Pradesh Rs 85,825 and Jammu and Kashmir Rs 30,435.

States with more than Rs 1 lakh debt included Tamil Nadu (Rs 1.06 lakh), Karnataka (Rs 1.26 lakh) and Telangana (Rs 1.52 lakh). The Hindi-belt states, including Bihar (Rs 23,534), Chhattisgarh (Rs 21,443), Jharkhand (Rs 8,415), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 74,420), Odisha (Rs 32,721), Uttarakhand (Rs 48,338), and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 51,107), reported moderate debt burden.

“The average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in the rural areas of the country is estimated through the situational assessment survey of agricultural households conducted by the National Statistical Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,” the minister added.

Experts said the figures reflected persistent credit dependency among farmers, usually linked to rising input costs, stagnant income, erratic weather conditions, especially uncertainty of the monsoon, delays in procurement payments, small landholdings, wasteful spending on social ceremonies, and a high rate of illiteracy.