The Hindu Business Line : AP farmers top in indebtedness; total burden put at Rs 11,861 cr

Hyderabad April 4 The farming community in Andhra Pradesh, which holds the dubious distinction with a high number of farmers' suicides, faces an uphill task with high levels of indebtedness, stagnancy in farm and non-farm employment and dwindling holdings.

Statistics show that the indebtedness in farm households in the State is the highest in the country. About 82 per cent of the 60.34 lakh farm households are found weighed down by the loan burden compared with the national average of 48.60 per cent.

According to the National Sample Survey and the State Directorate of Economics and Statistics, the average outstanding loan per farmer household in Andhra Pradesh is Rs 23,965, almost double the national average of Rs 12,585.

The cumulative financial burden on the indebted 49,49,300 farm households is about Rs 11,861 crore.

The indebtedness among the social groups in the State too is higher than the national average - 78.40 per cent in STs (36.54 per cent nationally), 79.20 per cent in SCs (50 per cent), 83.25 per cent in OBCs (51.41 per cent) and 83.72 per cent in others (49.48 per cent).

Landless farmers

The statistics also highlight substantial levels of landlessness. Farmers are being forced to sell or give up their land because of their inability to repay debts. A senior official said a good part of the loans generally goes to unproductive purposes (current and capital expenditure) and not into the farming-related activities and they end up in huge debts.

Frequent droughts, lack of planning and knowledge on institutional credit, farming practices, dwindling size of land holdings and excessive reliance on private moneylenders are some more issues the farmers face.

While the cost of cultivation is going up (on an average, farmers spend Rs 10,000 per hectare in commercial crops), yields and prices are not going up.

The farmers in the State, however, far surpassed the national average with regard to accessing information using modern means.

"While the national average stands at 40.4 per cent, about 63 per cent of farm households in Andhra Pradesh use modern technology to access information," the officials said.

More Stories on : Farm credit | Natural Calamities | Andhra Pradesh

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