Agrarian distress in India and possible measures to raise farm income

In the context of agrarian distress being witnessed in many states for quite some time, this paper evaluates income and expenditure of agricultural households as per their land holding size, examines various factors that determine their income and purposes possible ways to augment it. The analysis is carried out across nineteen major states based on unit level data from the NSS 59th and 70th relating to 2002–03 and 2012–13. Broad findings reveal an increase in both income and expenditure of households with Wide variations across farm size and states. The large and medium landholders earn Relatively lower net income per hectare, but they are better off due to its higher annual Rate of growth at 7.7 per cent and 6.0 per cent compared to the marginal and small Farmers whose income grew only at 2.7 per cent and 4.4 per cent per annum Respectively. We also find an inverse farm size-productivity relationship at all India, Which is somewhat negated in a few states. Farm income is positively and statistically Determined by the availability of capital, irrigation, credit, land holding size and Access of farmers to technical advice. An increase in public investment in irrigation And other infrastructure along with improvement in agriculture marketing system are essential policy interventions which can induce farmers to invest for higher income. An increased focus must be laid on agriculturally dominant poorer states having higher proportion of marginal and small farmers.