Doubling of Farmers’ Income by 2022 - NABARD€¦ · „Doubling of Farmers‟ Income by 2022‟...

Doubling of Farmers’ Income by 2022

Issues and Strategies for West Bengal

Study Sponsored By

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

Report Prepared By

SANTADAS GHOSH

Associate Professor in Economics

Department of Economics & Politics

Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan

Study Hosted By

A. K. Dasgupta Centre For Planning and Development

Visva-Bharati; Santiniketan

आर्थिक विश्लेषण और अनुसंधान विभाग

प्लॉटक्रसी-24,'जी' ब्लॉक,बांद्रा-कुलााकॉम्पप्लेक्स, बांद्रा (पूिा), मुंबई - 400 051.

टेली: +91 22 2652 3617 • फ़ै क्स: +91 22 2653 0086 • ईमेल:[email protected] Department of Economic Analysis & Research

mailto:[email protected]

Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. i

1. Study Background ............................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Basic information on agriculture in West Bengal ......................................................................... 1

1.2 Agro Climatic Zones ..................................................................................................................... 2

1.3 State Agricultural Plan .................................................................................................................. 3

1.4 Rural Non-farm Sector in India and West Bengal ........................................................................ 5

1.5 Doubling of Farmers‟ Income: Issues and challenges .................................................................. 7

2. Study objective.................................................................................................................................... 8

3. Sample design ..................................................................................................................................... 9

3.1 Selection of sample districts ....................................................................................................... 10

3.2 Selection of sample blocks .......................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Selection of sample villages ........................................................................................................ 12

3.4 Selection of sample households .................................................................................................. 12

3.5 Brief description of information collected .................................................................................. 13

4. Study findings ................................................................................................................................... 13

4.1 Household profile across survey districts ................................................................................... 13

4.2 Cropping pattern and livestock across socio-economic classes .................................................. 19

4.3 Household earning and its composition ...................................................................................... 23

4.4 Delivery of government assistance ............................................................................................. 27

4.5 The rural credit market and credit availability ............................................................................ 30

4.6. Impact of irrigation and credit on farm income ......................................................................... 34

4.7 Households‟ awareness, problems and diversification plans ...................................................... 36

5. Discussions on study findings ........................................................................................................... 39

5.1 Problems with the delivery system of farmers‟ assistance schemes ........................................... 40

5.2 Problems with irrigation infrastructure ....................................................................................... 40

5.3 Problems with rural credit ........................................................................................................... 41

5.4 The role of „progressive farmers‟ and demonstration effect ....................................................... 43

5.5 Scenario building at farm level ................................................................................................... 46

5.6 The Issue of Farmers‟ Clubs ....................................................................................................... 51

5.7 Justification for possible policy interventions............................................................................. 52

6. Conclusion and policy suggestions ................................................................................................... 54

6.1 Recommendations for improving institutions for assistance delivery ........................................ 54

6.2 Recommendations for improving various service provisions to farmers .................................... 55

6.3 Recommendations for increasing farm income in major agro-climatic zones ............................ 55

References ............................................................................................................................................. 56

APPENDIX-1: Location of the Sample districts in West Bengal ......................................................... 58

APPENDIX-2: Characteristics of sample villages ................................................................................ 59

APPENDIX-3: Agro-climatic zone wise Frequency distribution of Non-Farm earning activities of the

sample respondents ............................................................................................................................... 63

APPENDIX-4: Brief description of Farmers‟ Clubs operating in sample villages ............................... 66

APPENDIX-5: Survey Instrument for households ............................................................................... 67

i

Executive Summary

This study was undertaken to provide important baseline estimates for average rural

household income and its composition across four major agro-climatic zones and also across

different social class and landholding size classes for the state of West Bengal in 2017. The

study also identifies the major issues that are confronted by the rural farming households in

their endeavour to increase income from farming and allied activities. Based on the survey

findings, the study makes a number of policy recommendations for quick improvement in the

rural earning scenario for the state as well as for the major agro-climatic zones within it. The

findings and recommendations of this study might provide important policy directions for

„Doubling of Farmers‟ Income by 2022‟ – an announced goal of the Government of India.

The study is entirely based on information collected from primary survey of 809 households

from four major agro-climatic zones in West Bengal and extensive focus group discussions

with stakeholders. Each agro-climatic zone is represented by approximately 200 households.

A carefully designed multistage stratified random sampling method had been used that

ensured capturing maximum possible variability in socio-economic conditions among the

sample households. The field survey was conducted between August-November, 2017.

The study found that an overwhelming majority of the farmers in West Bengal are „marginal‟

and „small‟ according to standard official classification of landholding classes in India. In a

randomly selected sample of households at village level, the survey found very few „semi-

medium‟ and only one „medium‟ farmer in the sample. This is probably a legacy of

successful land reforms in the state in previous decades. The study calculated an overall

average landholding size of rural households to be 0.4 hectare only. Small landholding sizes

also forced people to seek earning avenues outside farm and allied sector. Close to 50 percent

of the survey households were reported to be engaged in some form of non-farm activities as

well.

Among the four major agro-climatic zones, the northern Terai-Alluvial zone is found to be

most advanced in terms of farming activities. This is supplemented by a good amount of

income generated by small tea plantations in the zone due to its special soil properties. The

Lateritic (rain fed) zone is expectedly generating lowest average household income compared

to all other zones. The Coastal Saline zone has the highest population pressure and the

average landholding size in this zone is about 40 percent less than the state‟s average. Still,

this zone is making up for the lack of land resources partially by earning from coastal fishing

and inland fisheries. The average household income of Gangetic Alluvial zone is placed in

between. The estimate for this zone is a bit underestimate than a usual year because of

significant losses in potato cultivation reported by the respondents from this zone in 2017 due

to depressed prices. Potato is the major winter crop in this zone.

The average annual household income was found to be around Rs.58,000 for Terai Alluvial

Zone and the same is estimated at around Rs. 29,000 in the Lateritic zone, with estimates for

other two zones lying in between. However, there is large variation in household earning

within each zone due to variation in households‟ land endowments. The estimates are

recalculated across size classes for the state as a whole. The results show that landless

households are surviving with less than Rs. 2,000 per month, the marginal landholders are

earning around Rs. 3,500 per month and the small and medium farmers are earning around

Rs. 7,500 per month from all sources.

ii

Turning to the income estimates across social classes for the state, it is observed that

Scheduled Tribes are relatively worse off in terms of their absolute value of average annual

earning (around Rs. 23,000 per household), compared to the other social classes. It is

interesting to note that similar estimates for SC, OBC and General caste are fairly comparable

(close to Rs. 38,000 per household) in terms of their value and composition.

The survey also found that the Block Agricultural Offices, the agency in control for

delivering most of the farmers‟ assistance schemes, are often understaffed, resulting in

communication gaps between the possible beneficiaries of these schemes and the delivering

authority. The study found that the capability and sincerity of the Assistant Directors of

Agriculture (ADAs) are very high. But they often fail to address the problems of individual

farmers under his/her Block in absence of sufficient number of ground level official liaison

person with the farmers (Krishi Prayukti Sahayaks, KPS). This deficiency creates hurdles for

the lowly educated farmers as they fail to get access to designated persons who can help them

with consultancy and procedures to avail credit and insurance through government

programmes. This lacunae is benefiting mostly a smaller group of villagers with better

education, landholding and usually with some local political clout. Farmers‟ Clubs (FCs),

which are promoted for more information dissemination, resource sharing and equitable

distribution of benefit schemes, are often controlled by these better-off people. The study

found that local elites tend to corner the benefits from large FCs depriving the ordinary

members who are often naive and ignorant.

This lack of proper delivery system is manifested by some numbers obtained from the

primary survey. It is found that only about 15 percent of land-owning households could avail

any type of crop insurance during last one year. Only about 6 percent of households had done

soil tests for their farm-lands ever. Another 20 percent of households had submitted soil

samples for testing to some middlemen, but they didn‟t get the reports yet.

The survey found that Kishan Credit Card (KCC) is eluding the rural farmers due to lack of

clear land titles and lack of procedural knowledge. Over 80 percent of households in the well-

dispersed sample reported not having KCC. Even households with KCC are facing serious

bottlenecks in availing credit in required quantity and in a timely manner. The respondents

reported non-cooperation from local bank authorities and felt that their apathy to provide loan

under KCC might be due to the bank‟s fear of recovery of such credit.

The study also found that the effect of micro-irrigation on enhancing farm income is

relatively more in Lateritic zone. Effect of credit provision for agriculture can result in the

highest percentage change in return in Terai-alluvial zone. Non-farm business earning can be

promoted most effectively in Coastal saline zone and livestock rearing activities can be

promoted most effectively in the Lateritic zone

The study found that it is not the absence of government sponsored assistance schemes, rather

the absence of appropriate delivery mechanism and institutional bottlenecks that are creating

hurdles for the rural households in their endeavour to enhance income. It is empirically

revealed that the provisions are failing to reach the intended beneficiaries due to information

gaps, which are resulting from inefficient delivery mechanisms and institutional

arrangements.

iii

In light of the major findings stated above, this study makes few policy suggestions to

improve rural income in West Bengal in the short run. Important suggestions are made to

build or reshape the existing delivery institutions dealing with various farmers‟ assistance

programmes. The suggestions are provided in the following three sets:

Suggestions for improving institutions for assistance delivery:

Small and efficient Farmers‟ Groups (FG) are to be promoted similar to women‟s

Self-Help Groups in each Gram Panchayet area. Such FGs should be provided with

funds in larger quantity and with longer repayment period compared to women SHGs.

Such groups should ideally be formed by 10-15 farmers in the neighbourhood

belonging to the same landholding class. The FGs should be formally recognized and

institutionalized.

For effective delivery of the various ongoing assistance and farmers‟ welfare

schemes, experienced Non-Governmental Organizations and/or specialized

professional agencies are to be engaged purely as facilitators for helping the lowly

educated farmers in availing various schemes‟ benefits. Such engagements should be

on the basis of financial incentives to the facilitating agency.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) in each district need to be funded to set up their own

extension units in each block of the district and scale up their successful

demonstration projects and create a larger pool of local progressive farmers.

Assistance for income enhancement to rural households in West Bengal should be

specially designed for landless and small landholders. They are the overwhelming

majority in the state. Various current assistance schemes, which are not linked to

landholding size, are being appropriated by the larger landowning households due to

their local clout and proximity with the personnel in the delivering institutions.

Suggestions for improving various service provisions to farmers

For intensification of cropping and hence increasing return from farming, successful

rainwater harvesting models should be scaled up taking cue from IWMP projects from

rain fed areas. The office of the Assistant Director of Agriculture in each block might

be asked to provide the extent of such project possibilities and corresponding funding

requirement for his block in this regard.

Specialized soil testing laboratories needs to be set up adjacent to ADA offices in

each block either purely by engaging private agencies through financial incentives, or

through PPP model. Soil tests reports should be provided in a time-bound way and it

should be accompanied by expert opinion on the optimum cropping pattern and

fertilizer use for that soil.

Prime Ministers‟ Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) should have much wider coverage in

crops across different seasons in West Bengal compared to its present provisions.

West Bengal is characterised by extensive cultivation of vegetables, most of which

are presently not covered under PMFBY

iv

Suggestions for increasing farm income in major agro-climatic zones

The assistance schemes for livestock (free distribution of livestock and fodder) needs

to be more concentrated towards the Lateritic zone as the households in this zone have

a better ongoing practice in livestock maintenance and related activities.

Ongoing IWMP projects in rain fed Lateritic zone should be synchronized with

MGNREGA. The later should be used as a vehicle to create more rainwater

harvesting infrastructure like check-dams and dug-wells in Lateritic zones.

In Terai Alluvial zone, special long term credit schemes should be launched for small

holders who can convert parts of their cropland to small tea plantations. The credit is

needed for them towards land conversion cost and also for the gestation period for

new tea plantations which starts yielding financial returns after three years.

.

In light of much lesser average landholding size in Coastal Saline zone compared to

other zones, potential for enhancing rural household income is more from

development of inland fisheries than providing inputs to farming. Special credit

facilities should be provided in this zone for developing brackish water fish farms.

The amount of credit that can be availed through KCC is insufficient for such

enterprise.

In Gangetic Alluvial zone, more warehousing facilities should be made available for

potato and vegetables by enticing private investors with soft loans. Also, for potato

growers, a longer repayment period of credit is recommended as they often distress

sell their output at lower price for repayment of short term loans.

The results in this study, however, have to be interpreted with a word of caution. Due to the

limit imposed by time and resources, this study had to be carried out with approximately 200

households representing each agro-climatic zone. The large extent of socio-economic and

infrastructural variations within each zone had to be captured within a small sample with a

carefully designed multistage sampling scheme. This could only be achieved through a

purposive (but objective) selection of blocks and villages from each zone. Within a sample

village, households were selected by standard stratified random method. But the blocks and

villages were carefully chosen to capture high, medium and low ranks in terms of their

cropping pattern and irrigation infrastructure. Since the relative prevalence or weight of such

blocks and villages vary cross agro-climatic zones, it will be wrong to directly use the

reported estimates as population estimates. While it is perfectly sensible to use the results for

future comparison and identifying bottlenecks, it might not be wise to extrapolate these

results to find estimates for the whole of West Bengal. For that, a larger sample size for each

zone is advisable, which should be supplemented by required secondary information at block

and Gram Panchayet level. It remains another research agenda and open at this point.

1

1. Study Background

1.1 Basic information on agriculture in West Bengal

West Bengal is a predominantly agrarian state comprising of 2.7 percent of India's

geographical area, but supporting nearly 8 percent of its population. This resulted in high

population density and a low average landholding size (0.77 Ha per household). Among an

estimated 71.23 lakh rural households, 96 percent are small and marginal farmers. However,

the state is bestowed with diverse natural resources and varied agro-climatic conditions which

support cultivation of a wide range of crops. West Bengal ranks first in paddy and vegetable

production in the country. It stands second in potato production. The net cropped area is

52.05 lakh hectare which is 68 percent of the state‟s geographical area and 92 percent of its

arable land. The average cropping intensity is 184 percent1.

An estimated 44 percent of the active work force in the state is engaged in agriculture either

as primarily cultivators or agricultural labourers (NSSO, 2014). However, though leading in

production of many agricultural commodities, the income of the farming households in the

state is one of the lowest in the country due to low average land endowments (Mandal et al,

2017). Table-1 provides some basic socio-economic information of West Bengal at a glance.

Table 1: Basic aggregate information on West Bengal

Geographical Area 88,752 sq. km.

Number of Districts 19

Number of Blocks 341

Population 9.13 million

Rural Population 6.55 million

Urban Population 2.58 million

Population Density 1029 per sq. km

Per capita agriculture land holding Less than 1 ha (about 0.64 ha)

Normal Annual Rainfall 1,234 - 4,136 mm.

Cultivable Area 56.84 lakh ha

Net Sown Area 54.65 lakh ha

Net Cropped Area 52.56 lakh ha.

Cropping intensity 181 %

Area under Forest 11897 sq km

Surface Water Resources 132.90 lakh ha. m

Annual Replenishable Ground Water 30.36 lakh ha. m.

Ultimate Irrigation Potential 70.00 lakh ha.

Total Flood Prone Area 37,660 sq. km.

Coastal Length 280 km. Source: West Bengal State Action Plan on Climate Change

http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/West-Bengal-SAPCC.pdf

Increasing population pressure with a low per-capita landholding base has resulted in

diversification of earning activities outside the farm sector. The contribution of agriculture

1 https://wb.gov.in/portal/web/guest/agriculture


https://wb.gov.in/portal/web/guest/agriculture

2

sector to the state‟s Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) has decreased significantly over

2004-05 to 2014-15 (from 25 percent to 16 percent; Mandal et al, 2017). It is also

indicative of low productivity growth in the state‟s agriculture. Compared to other

agriculturally advanced states in India, West Bengal is yet to experience large scale farm

mechanization. This might be a result of high population pressure and relatively lower labour

cost in the farm sector compared to other advanced states. Mechanization in agriculture

progressed faster in north Indian states. For example, the number of tractors used per

thousand hectares of land in Punjab is 82.5, in Hariyana 62.9 while in West Bengal it is only

2.9. The use of electricity as farm input in West Bengal is 1.25 KW/ha which is only 36

precent of that of Punjab2.

1.2 Agro Climatic Zones India is divided into 15 broad agro climatic regions and West Bengal comes under three of

them. Agriculturally, the three broad regions are Eastern Himalayan Region (Zone II), Lower

Gangetic Plain Region (Zone III) and Eastern Plateau & Hilly Region (Zone VIII). The map

depicting the agro climatic regions is presented below:

Figure 1: Major Agro-Climatic regions in West Bengal

Source: State Agriculture Plan http://rkvy.nic.in/static/SAP/WB/WB.PDF

2http://rkvy.nic.in/static/SAP/WB/WB.PDF

http://rkvy.nic.in/static/SAP/WB/WB.PDF


3

These three broad regions are further stratified into six agro-climatic sub regions. Salient

features of these sub regions are as follows:

Zone II: Eastern Himalayan Region

(a) Hills sub region: Covering Darjeeling district: Mainly brown forest soil, acidic in nature.

Annual rainfall varies from 2500-3500mm, high humidity, less sunshine hours, poor soil

depth and quality limits crop productivity. Pre-monsoon showers commences from March.

b.) Terai sub region: Covering Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar district. Soils are mostly sandy to

sandy loams, porous, low in base content, poor in available nutrients; acidic; rainfall varies

from 2000-3200mm; high water table, low water holding capacity, high humidity, less

sunshine hours during the monsoon months and marginality of lands in some parts limit crop

productivity.

Zone III: Lower Gangetic Region

(a) Old alluvium: Comprising North and South Dinajpur and Malda districts. Soils are mildly

acidic to neutral; fairly fertile over most of the sub region; rainfall 1500-2000mm in upper

and 1300-1500m in lower parts, considerable area is flood prone.

(b) New alluvium: Covering Murshidabad, Nadia, Hoogly, Burdwan and North 24 Parganas.

Soils are deep, mostly neutral and fertile; rainfall 1350-1450 mm; agriculturally most

productive area of the state.

(c) Coastal saline: Covering South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Midnapore (East). Soils are

mostly heavy clay containing higher salts of sodium, magnesium, potassium with organic

matter at different stages of decomposition and mostly neutral. Rainfall 1600-1800 mm;

salinity and water congestion limit good crop productivity.

(d) Red laterite: Covering Birbhum, Bankura and Midnapore (West) districts. Soils are coarse

in texture, highly drained with honeycomb type of ferruginous concentration at a depth of 15

to 30cm.; erosion prone; acidic in nature; poor available nutrients; average rainfall 1100-

1400mm., low moisture holding capacity and poor nutrient status limit crop productivity.

Zone VII: Eastern Plateau & Hill Region

This region covers Purulia district. Soils are shallow, modulated gravely, coarse textured,

well drained with low water holding capacity, highly susceptible to erosion and acidic.

Rainfall varies from 1100 to 1400mm. which is spread over only three months (mid June to

mid September).

1.3 State Agricultural Plan According to West Bengal Development Report (Planning Commission, GoI., 2010)

3, The

fall in investment in agriculture, particularly public investment, is one of the most

important issues of agricultural development in recent times. But the inadequacy of

statistical information on investments in agriculture is a major limitation to capture the

issue properly. Investments in canal irrigation constitute the major portion of total

investments in agriculture on public accounts. Several documents prepared for the

Eleventh Plan focusing on agriculture pointed out that technological exhaustion was the

major cause for the severe agrarian crisis and poor agricultural growth during the

3 http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/sdr/sdr_wb1909.pdf

http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/sdr/sdr_wb1909.pdf

4

1990s. Moreover, the intensive cultivation of mono-crop (paddy-wheat sequence) along

with a wide imbalance in NPK ratio in the use of chemical fertilizers affected soil

fertility adversely.

The National Agricultural Development Program or Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)

aims at holistic development of agriculture and allied sectors through all the eligible States of

India. The Agriculture Department, Government of West Bengal is working with the vision

“to achieve sustainable livelihood opportunities for the people through eco-friendly, clean

and value added Agriculture and related activities”.4 The Department‟s website tells about

the vision of "Doubling farmers' income by 2020 by ensuring farmers' access to Skills,

Technologies, Markets and Financial inclusion". The State‟s Agricultural Plan for the XII

Five Year Plan period embodies the following objectives to fulfil this vision5:

1. to ensure quantifiable improvement in production & productivity,

2. to reduce yield gap with focused interventions,

3. to maximize returns to the farmers from Agriculture & Allied sector,

4. to augment marketing interventions and export promotion,

5. to promote competitiveness in Agriculture and Allied Sector and

6. to meet the challenges of Climate Change and evolve mechanisms for effective

drought and flood management.

The crucial agencies and institutions that are operative in the state to fulfil these visions are:

Two State Agricultural Universities and four National Level Institutions are operating

in the field of agricultural extension services

Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) or Farm Science Centres are specialised institutions

providing vocational training to farmers based on learning through work experience.

There are 16 KVKs in the State functioning under different Agricultural Universities

including Visva-Bharati, Veterinary University, NGOs and ICAR.

There are six centres of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) for

facilitating a participatory mode of extension delivery.

NABARD has been instrumental in facilitating the adoption of new/upgraded

technology by farmers/entrepreneurs to promote increased productivity and

production.

Farmers‟ Clubs (FCs) in West Bengal are engaged in supplementing extension

services of State Government Line Departments in the field of Agriculture, Animal

Husbandry, etc.,

The State Agriculture Plan has also recognized few limitations in its present state of affairs.

These are:

Involvement of multiple agencies with overlapping objectives. A well co-ordinated

approach is apparently lacking with different players adopting independent, target

oriented approach.

4 http://rkvy.nic.in/static/SAP/WB/WB.PDF

5 https://wb.gov.in/portal/web/guest/agriculture



5

Limited attempts to understand the farmers‟ location specific needs

Emphasis on technology transfer without fully understanding social/psychological

barriers of target groups (farmers)

One spelt out plan, following the Plan Document in the state, is to develop KVK – NGO –

Farmers‟ Clubs Linkage for effective improvement of income in rural sector. KVKs are the

grass root level extension institutions with mandate for transfer of technology. The KVKs in

general have necessary technical manpower and access to the technologies developed by the

State Agricultural Universities, State Agriculture Departments and other Research Institutions

and necessary physical infrastructure for imparting training and capacity building to the

farmers.

NGOs can play a very effective role in knowledge disseminations through social

mobilization, people‟s involvement and technological interventions. This is clearly

demonstrated in watershed projects. The major gap (with NGOs) is the technical

input/manpower, which can effectively be filled in by the KVKs which have the mandate for

technology transfer but have a few limitations including financial support. An effective

linkage of these three grass root level institutions can be one feasible option in technology

transfer process.

The following recent initiatives of Government of West Bengal might be noted in improving

the performance of agriculture and allied sector in the state:

Task Force of Secretaries on West Bengal Agriculture Commission

Extension Services through Jeebika Sahayaks (Livelihood Associates)

Agriculture related services through NeGP and Agrinet

Training programme for fertilizer dealers and retailers in association with FAI

Focus on Agriculture and Allied sectors through project ATMA

1.4 Rural Non-farm Sector in India and West Bengal The non-farm sector in India is a relatively under-researched component of the rural

economy. In a study, drawing on a large nationally representative household survey for rural

India in 1994, it was indicated that non-farm incomes account for roughly one third of

household income, on average. The study also admitted that the estimate is most likely an

understatement of the importance of non-farm incomes in rural areas, as the calculations were

based on incomes from primary occupations only. The study found that non-farm income

shares vary considerably across states of India, and also across population quintiles. The poor

tend to earn significant shares of total income from casual non-farm wage employment. The

rich earn mainly non-farm incomes from salaried employment. Own enterprise activities

appear to comprise both low-productivity activities and as well-remunerated activities. The

states in which average non-farm income shares are particularly high are Himachal Pradesh,

Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and the north-east. In these states, non-farm income shares

typically rise with income quintiles (Lanjouw & Shariff 2004).

Analysis of non-farm employment probabilities and earnings found strong evidence of the

importance of education in determining access to non-farm occupations. There is clear

evidence that education improves prospects of finding non-farm employment, and that with

higher levels of education the odds of employment in well-paid, regular non-farm

6

occupations rises. The non-farm sector appears to offer relatively few real opportunities for

women in rural India. A weaker and similar, but still significant, pattern applies to individuals

from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe backgrounds. Not only do these groups typically

possess much lower levels of human capital, but controlling for these assets, they face

additional constraints on employment and earnings in the non-farm sector (Lanjouw &

Shariff, 2004)

Another study on a sample of 2321 rural households in West Bengal shows that wealth and

human capital have a positive impact on the choice of high-return jobs, and low caste workers

are more likely to work in casual, low paying jobs, partly due to their dependence on personal

networks in finding jobs. Notably, no clear evidence of association between social group and

income is found. Occupations are classified into eight categories: (1) self-employed farming,

housewife, and inactive worker, (2) agricultural wage work, (3) local construction, (4) local

factory, (5) local service and self-employment, (6) migratory construction, (7) migratory

factory, and (8) migratory service and self-employment.

It was found that low-caste workers seek jobs primarily through personal networks and

generally find low-return jobs; while upper caste workers generally engage in higher-return

jobs than lower-caste workers, relying on recruitment firms and vocational training centres

more than the low-caste workers do. These findings suggest that providing low-caste people

with information on non-farm job opportunities not available through their personal

networks, and giving them better access to employment support institutions, could increase

their chances of working in the high-return non-farm sectors. Entry barriers faced by

impoverished people may be overcome through education. Additionally, better access to

factory work, to information on non-farm jobs, and to higher human capital could improve

the living standard of the socially and economically disadvantaged people in rural India,

which in turn would lead to poverty reduction (Nakajima et al, 2017).

In another study, longitudinal household survey data collected under the Village Dynamics

Studies in South Asia (VDSA) project by the ICRISAT (Hyderabad), has been used to

explore the role of Non-Farm sector in rural livelihood diversification. The data were

collected for the period 2009 to 2014 in 12 villages across 6 states of India (Andhra Pradesh,

Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat). The study has found that

non- farm income is dominant for all farm households in the selected states where it

contributes 41 - 53 per cent to the household income, except in Gujarat. The share of non-

farm income declines as the landholding-size increases, but at the same time it has a positive

relationship with total income. The preceding statement also justifies higher dependence of

landless labour households as well as smallholders on non-farm income. This suggests that

the non-farm sector and labour market can serve as a leading source of income for landless

and smallholder households. The concern of declining landholding size and dependence of a

large section of population on agriculture, which ultimately is increasing the pie of

economically-vulnerable section of the society, can be overcome by way of giving more

thrust on non-farm sector and promoting rural non-farm enterprises. The access to

agricultural credit and area under irrigation are the crucial factors in determining the

agricultural income of households. The government initiatives towards these in the form of

financial inclusion and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) might boost the

household income from agriculture and also secure the livelihood of the households‟

dependent on agriculture (Meena et al, 2017).

7

All these studies are drawing similar conclusion regarding the importance of rural non-farm

income and its distribution across social classes and landholding classes. However, the

composition and scale of rural non-farm income has a large variation even within a small

region. A detailed understanding of such earning activities is lacking in the literature, which

needs to be based on primary surveys. This study attempts to fill up this information gap,

which is described in the subsequent sections of this report.

1.5 Doubling of Farmers’ Income: Issues and challenges This study has been undertaken against the backdrop of a recent announcement by the

Government of India regarding some major schemes for uplifting income of the rural

households in the country. The Union Finance Minister, while presenting the General Budget

this year, announced that the Government intends to double the farmers‟ income by

20226. He allotted Rs. 35,984 crore for agriculture and farmers‟ welfare. He said that his

government intends to address issues of optimal utilization of water resources, create new

infrastructure for irrigation, conserve soil fertility with balanced use of fertilizer and provide

connectivity from farm to market.

The Finance Minister also announced Pradhan Mantri Sinchai Yojana (PMSY), to be

implemented in a mission mode to bring another 28.5 lakh hectares of farmland under

irrigation. A dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund in NABARD with an initial corpus of Rs.

20,000 crore has also been announced in this regard. A similar progrmme for sustainable

management of ground water resources, with an estimated cost of Rs.6000 crores has been

proposed for multilateral funding. He also said that allocations under MGNREGA will be

used for creating at least 5 lakh farm pond and dug-wells in rain fed areas and 10 lakh

compost-pits for organic manure production.

The other major step taken by the Government of India is the announcement of the new

simplified crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Under the

new scheme that would cost government Rs 8,000-9,000 crore annually, the farmers' crop

insurance premium has been kept at a maximum of 2 per cent for food grains and oilseeds,

and up to 5 per cent for horticulture and cotton crops. The new scheme includes successful

aspects of the previous similar schemes and addresses whatever was lacking in similar earlier

schemes7. The PMFBY has the lowest premium and entails easy usage of technology like

mobile phone, quick assessment of damage and disbursement within a time frame.

From farmers‟ perspective, all these measures are welcome at the first glance. The aim of

achieving „doubled income‟ for farmers, however, leaves some blurred area which needs to

be clarified. Experts are already having different opinion about its achievability8. It is quite

obvious, notwithstanding the debate on whether it is to be measured in real or nominal terms,

that such „doubling of income‟ cannot be achieved uniformly over all agro-climatic zones and

across all social class with a set of uniformly applicable support programmes.

Academic output in the form of commentaries and research articles has started pouring in

since the Government‟s announcement of “Doubling of Farmers‟ Income by 2022” as a target

(Mandal et al, 2017; Singh, 2018). A study in this regard on the coastal region of West

Bengal concluded that one of the key impediments to increase the farmers‟ income in the

state is attributed to small (14%) and marginal (82%) landholdings where an average farmer

6 Press Information Bureau, Government of India; Ministry of Finance ; 29-February-2016

7 Press Information Bureau, Government of India; http://pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx?relid=135964

8 Rural Pulse; Issue - XIV, March - April 2016, NABARD

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx?relid=135964

8

operates less than a hectare of land (0.77 ha) (Agricultural Statistics at a Glance,

2016). With these marginal landholdings, farmers produce low volume of marketable surplus,

hence receive low return from their farming business. Therefore, they are incapable to

increase their investment in agriculture. The resource-poor farmers are naturally risk averters

and prefer a lower outcome which is relatively certain to the prospect of a higher return along

with a greater degree of uncertainty. The study also found that for the farmers operating

under different socio-economic conditions, appropriate technologies could be replicated but

„social cloning‟ is beyond the reach of the policy authority. Therefore, enhancing income for

all the farmers across the state would be a challenging task (Mandal et al, 2017).

To face the challenge, the first and foremost requirement is to understand the bottlenecks and

needs of the rural households at the grass root level. It calls for a baseline estimate and

identification of major areas of possible intervention at different agro-climatic zones through

a carefully designed primary survey. This study is an attempt towards that direction.

2. Study objective

The major enabling services to be provided by the Union Government of India (as proclaimed

by the finance minister), implicitly identifies the lack of income growth of the farming sector

with some general set of bottlenecks. This might be true at a macro level. But for efficient

implementation of various assistance schemes, one needs to know about the most binding

issues at local level. Local aspirations and the most important requirements need to be

assessed for implementation of large scale support programmes.

Optimum institutional interventions to enhance farmers‟ income need a set of current

information on farming households as baseline data. Since the state of agriculture and its

relative importance for rural households also varies widely with location, the baseline should

have enough variability in its sample with respect to agro-climatic zones. Such baseline

information is apparently not available for West Bengal as of now.

In the background stated above, the current study had been sponsored by NABARD with the

following objectives:

(i) To estimate the current income level of farm households and its composition

across social and asset classes in four major agro-climatic zones of West Bengal.

(ii) To understand the specific bottlenecks faced by the farm households that are

limiting their opportunities to income enhancement under different agro-climatic

zones

(iii) To understand the level of diversification in crop choice as well as allied, off farm

and non-farm activities of rural households along with the constraints, possibilities

and supports required for such diversification.

(iv) Estimation of farm economics and financial requirement (including bank credit)

to double farm income (by 2022) and efficient strategies to meet their financial

requirement.

9

(v) The extent of assistance from Centre/State/PRIs/NGOs being received by the farm

households and hindrances in getting the benefits, if any.

(vi) To understand from farmer’s point of view, under different circumstances, the

most warranted form and quantity of supports / facilities / policy that could enable

them to double their income by 2022.

(vii) Designing a state specific strategy for doubling the farmers’ income taking into

account the farmers’ need and constraints faced in the state.

(viii) Recommend sector specific interventions (especially on irrigation, soil health,

warehousing, cold chains, value addition, marketing, allied activities, non- farm/off

farm activities, wage employment etc.)

(ix) Recommend collaboration and partnership among stakeholders, channel

partners, their proposed engagements and convergence plan.

The study has been carried out with an intensive field survey of sample household to address

the specific objectives listed above. The study commenced on 1st July, 2017 and had a

targeted completion time of six months from the date of commencement. This report is

prepared with the information collected from the field during August-November, 2017.

The reliability of such a study crucially depends on the sampling scheme and the types of

information collected through the survey instrument. The following sections are arranged to

provide a detailed description of the sampling procedure, a brief description of the survey

questionnaire, a detailed description of survey findings and a follow up discussion on the

findings. Appropriate policy suggestions are made based on the survey findings at the end of

this report.

3. Sample design

The set of objectives of this study required a very careful selection of rural households across

the state of West Bengal. The time and budget allocation allowed for only 200 sample

households from each agro-climatic zone in the state, which is a very small sample compared

to the heterogeneity in the population within each zone. So, utmost care had been taken to

ensure enough variability in the sample households in this sampling scheme.

The variations in the practices and earning possibilities of rural households are assumed to be

affected by the following crucial aspects:

Geographical location (agro-climatic zones)

Irrigation infrastructure

Infrastructure in terms of transport/communication

Proximity to urban centres

Households‟ land endowment

Keeping in view the requirement of ensuring variability on the above counts, respondent

selection had to be multi-stage. Following is the details of stages through which selections

were made in this study to arrive at the final survey sample.

10

3.1 Selection of sample districts

In the first stage, according to the study condition stipulated by NABARD, one district was

chosen from each of the major agro-climatic zones in West Bengal. There are six such zones

(Sub-regions, as described in section 1.2 before) in West Bengal. The distribution of districts

across them is shown in the Table-2.

Table 2: Distribution of districts of West Bengal across agro-climatic zones

Agro-climatic zones Districts (by the main soil type)

Coastal saline zone South 24 Parganas

Gangetic alluvial zone Burdwan, Hooghly, Howrah, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24

Parganas

Undulating red lateritic zone Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum, West Midnapore

Vindhya alluvial zone: Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur

Terai alluvial zone Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri9, Uttar Dinajpur

Northern Hilly zone Darjeeling

Also, at most four districts and hence four such zones could be covered for the state

following the study mandate. The four districts that are covered in this study are indicated in

bold fonts in the table. The choice of the districts was made keeping in view its importance in

absolute geographical size and population within each major agro-climatic zone. Each one of

the selected district (Bankura, Burdwan, Jalpaiguri and South 24 Parganas) is the largest in

population and geographical area among its peers within the same agro-climatic zone. Two

such zones (Northern Hilly and Vindhya alluvial) had been left out of the sample following

the same criteria (i.e., they are the smallest in terms of population and geographical

coverage). Moreover, Bankura is the Backward District in terms of agricultural performance,

which was a mandated selection criterion in this study. The location of the sample districts in

the state is shown in Appendix-1.

3.2 Selection of sample blocks

The district selection ensured representation of four major and most populous agro-climatic

zones of West Bengal. In the second stage, three CD blocks had been selected from each of

the four sample districts. Such blocks were selected keeping in mind the variability in the

other major issue of irrigation. There can be three broad types of irrigation status:

(i) Irrigation by lifting of ground water (using shallow / submersible pump sets)

(ii) Irrigation by lifting/channelizing surface water (canal/ pond irrigation)

(iii) No irrigation (purely rain fed agriculture)

Blocks are expected to show enough variation in the major form of irrigation across them. It

is also understood that within an agro-climatic zone (here a district), variation in irrigation

facility has a close relation with cropping diversity. Production figures of all major crops are

9 This district was later split into two during the survey implementation time. In this report, “jalpaiguri‟ includes

both of the new districts – „Jalpaiguri‟ and „Alipurduar‟.

11

available from secondary sources at block level. So, blocks are selected within a district

according to their cropping diversity as a proxy to variability in irrigation facilities as well.

The following table provides an idea of the number of blocks, and villages therein, within

each of the selected districts.

Table 3: Blocks and villages across survey districts

District No. of

Blocks

No. of

Villages

Bankura 22 3,823

Barddhaman 31 2,502

Jalpaiguri 13 733

South 24 Parganas 29 2,044

Total 95 9,102

Source: Village Amenities, Census 2011

Latest official data were obtained at block level10

on the area cultivated (in hectare) under

Aus paddy, Aman paddy, Boro paddy, Wheat, Maize, Jute, Musur, Maskalai, Khesari, Gram,

Mustard, Til, Potato and Sugarcane for each of the four selected districts The crop

diversification index was calculated following the well accepted formula given below:

Herfindahl Index (𝐻𝐼) = 𝑆𝑖2𝑛

𝑖=1 , where 𝑆𝑖 implies the share of the i-th crop area

in total crop area of the block.

Cropping Diversity Index (DI) = 1- HI

The index, by its construction, lies between the closed interval (0,1). We divided the range of

DI into three equal parts and categorized all the blocks under a district as of High, Medium

and Low according to their calculated DI.

For each district, we had chosen three blocks - one from each DI category. In doing so, we

also ensured the maximum variation in the major soil types that are available in that district.

Also proximity to urban centres and the railway transport facilities are considered (using

Google map) in block selection so that maximum diversity in those counts is also ensured.

The final selection of blocks is shown in Table-4:

10

Source: District Statistical Handbooks, 2014

12

Table 4: Sample CD Blocks in four sample districts

District High diversity Medium Diversity Low Diversity

Bankura Patrasayer Onda Chhatna

Burdwan Ausgram – I Kalna – II Salanpur

Jalpaiguri Alipurduar-II Rajganj Moynaguri

South 24 Parganas Diamond Harbour - I Mathurapur - I Patharpratima

Source: Author’s calculation using information from District Census Handbooks

3.3 Selection of sample villages For selection of villages, there was no ready information from secondary sources. We

depended on the Assistant Director of Agriculture (ADA) of each sample block and

conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with him and his Krishi Pryukti Sahayaks

(KPSs). In taking decisions on the villages to survey, in FGDs with ADAs, maximum

variation across villages (within that block) were ensured with respect to:

The main crop

Irrigation status

Remoteness (transportation facilities)

The villages were suggested by the ADAs under his/her block from his/her personal

experiences about the state of their current agriculture so that the villages are different from

each other in terms of the three aspects mentioned above. From each block, at least three

villages were selected with one block (the largest one) contributing to an additional village.

So, a total of 10 villages from three blocks in each district were selected. The main features

of these selected villages, noted down from the opinion of the ADAs, are provided at the end

of this report (Appendix-2).

3.4 Selection of sample households The ADAs and KPSs provided some key-person‟s contact for each of the suggested villages

who had been hired later-on to enlist all the households in that village along with their current

landholding status. In this way, the Sampling Frame of households for the 40 villages in four

districts had been prepared for primary survey.

The study had a survey target of 800 sample households, taking 200 from each of the four

districts. In each district, 10 villages were selected by the procedure described above. So, 20

households were to be selected from each of these villages.

The landholding distributions were found to vary significantly across the 40 villages. A

uniform landholding stratification across them would not have ensured enough variation in

household asset (land) holding within each village. So, landholding stratum had been

decided for each village separately. For each of them, from the full list of households, the

„landless‟ category had been separated out first. Then, from the landholding distribution of

the remaining households, quartiles had been calculated. This way, each village-list was

divided into five land-classes. Four households from each land stratum were selected

13

randomly using computer generated random numbers. So, a total of 20 households were

selected from each village as a stratified random sample.

The sampling procedure mentioned above resulted in a target list of 800 households (4

districts x 10 villages x 20 households). However, while sending the enumerators to the field,

a list of replacement households (in case the original target household is unwilling / absent)

were also prepared so that replacements are also random within the corresponding strata. In

actual survey, some of these replacements were actually surveyed while the original one had

also turned up eventually. Hence a little more than the target surveys was accomplished. The

results presented in this study are based on a total sample size of 809 households.

3.5 Brief description of information collected In this study, information was collected through a carefully designed modular instrument

with close-ended and pre-coded options provided against most of the questions. Only

regarding the problems faced by the rural households in availing assistance schemes and in

eliciting their income enhancement / diversification plans, prior codes could not be provided.

The survey instrument was developed with inputs from FGDs with ADAs during July, 2017.

The instrument was pre-tested for around 20 households in three different villages in the first

half of August, 2017.

The questionnaire was developed in a modular structure. Following is a brief description of

the modules and their contents:

Module A: Household member profile and standard household level information

Module B: Plot wise and season wise details of agriculture with irrigation sources.

Module C: Details of allied and non-farm activities by members of the households

Module D: Awareness regarding government sponsored assistance programmes

Module E: households‟ current credit profile and usage

Module F: Description of livestock holding and earning from livestock

Module G: Earning diversification plans of the households and required assistance for it

Module H: Details of fishing and related activities and expansion plans

Module I: Details of plantation crops

Module J: Experience and opinion on Soil test, KCC, PMFBY, PMSY etc.

4. Study findings

The results obtained from analysis of the full set of survey data is described in this section

with the help of summary statistics and charts. These are arranged under some broad sub-

sections as described below.

4.1 Household profile across survey districts It is necessary to have an idea of the broad socio-economic profile of the sample households

across the four survey districts. Table-5 describes the distribution of household size, age, sex

and education level of the household head across the four survey districts. The table shows

that Bankura district (mostly Lateritic zone) is having a relatively bigger household size and a

marginally bigger average landholding. Also, the average number of years of schooling of the

household head is lowest for this district. This is in conformity with the conventional idea

that the Lateritic zone is relatively backward and it might need a bigger household size for

their sustenance in a rain-fed area, since more household members needed to be engaged in

multiple earning avenues.

14

Table 5: Sample households' broad characteristics across survey districts

District & Agro- Climatic zone

No of sample

HH

No of HH with Female Head

Average HH Size

Average years of

schooling of HH Head

Average age of HH Head

(Years)

Average Land

holding (Hectare)

Bankura (Mostly Lateritic, partly Gangetic Alluvilal)

200 6 5.1 4.8 50.0 0.43

Burdwan (Mostly Gangetic Alluvilal, partly Lateritic)

206 17 4.6 6.1 50.8 0.42

Jalpaiguri (Terai Alluvial)

200 6 4.7 5.4 48.0 0.39

South 24 Parganas (Coastal Saline)

203 10 4.8 5.6 50.1 0.24

Total 809

[Source: Primary Survey]

It is also seen from Table-5 that the average household landholding is much lower in the

South 24 Parganas district. This is also in conformity with secondary information since this

district has the largest population density among all the four survey districts. Another

interesting feature in this table is that the average landholding size is indeed very low across

all the districts. This confirms the prevalence of landless and marginal farmers in the state of

West Bengal as a whole.

Other intricate details of household composition and endowments, though partially collected,

are not being reported here as they might not be very useful for this particular report.

However, it might be interesting to have a glimpse of the penetration of banking habits and

the availability of Aadhar number among the survey population, since most of the

government assistance programmes in India these days are channelized through banks linked

with the beneficiaries‟ Aadhar number. This is described in Table-6.

Table 6: Prevalence of banking habits and availability of Aadhar numbers

Bankura (Lateritic/ Gangetic Alluvial)

Burdwan (Gangetic Alluvial/ Lateritic

Jalpaiguri (Terai

Alluvial)


Aggregate

No. of sample households 200 206 200 203 809

Total number of members in sample HHs 1026 950 934 966 3876

Total no. of Adult Member (age>=18 yrs) 729 714 686 703 2832

No. of HHs having any Bank Account 191 200 199 196 786

% of Adults having any Bank Account 68.9 75.1 80.3 70.3 73.6

% of household members having Aadhar 90.7 90.7 92.6 90.5 91.1


15

It is seen that almost three quarter of the adult population in these districts have at least one

bank account (including recently opened Jandhan accounts) and over 90 percent of the

sample population have Aadhar numbers. While the distribution of Aadhar numbers is fairly

comparable across survey districts, the banking habits are not that homogeneous across them.

Jalpaiguri (Terai alluvial) has more banking penetration and Bankura (Lateritic) is lagging the

most on this count.

Turning to rural livelihood and income diversification, the first glimpse of the distribution

can be obtained by classifying the different reported earning activities into some broad

categories. Table-7 describes the relative distribution such broad categories across the survey

districts.

Table 7: Relative importance of earning activities across survey districts

Broad categories of earning activities Bankura (Lateritic/ Gangetic Alluvial)


Jalpaiguri (Terai

Alluvial)


Aggregate

No. of Survey HH 200 206 200 203 809

Percentage of sample household reported to be engaged

Own Agriculture 74.0 61.7 79.0 59.6 68.5

Fishing and pisciculture 2.0 2.9 0.5 7.9 2.7

Own small tea plantations 0.0 0.0 19.0 0.0 4.7

Livestock earning 5.5 1.0 4.0 1.5 2.7

Farm Labour 33.5 29.1 21.5 21.2 26.3

Non-Farm Labour 21.0 18.0 20.0 22.7 20.4

Agro-related business 3.0 5.3 5.5 4.9 4.7

Other Business activities 27.0 26.2 34.5 36.5 31.0

Other Non-Farm activities 35.0 56.8 52.0 46.8 47.7


It might be noted that the percentage of households across different activities adds up to more

than 100 percent for each district. This is members of a household are found to be generally

engaged in more than one activity in different seasons. Own cultivation is found to be the

predominant activity across all the districts as expected. However, this is lowest in South 24

Parganas (Coastal saline zone) which is compatible with the fact that this district has the

lowest average landholding per household. It is to be noted that the percentages had been

calculated in each district using all sample households within it. So, the landless had been

automatically absent from „own agriculture‟ but is largely present in the „farm labour‟

earning category.

Smaller percentage of „own agriculture‟ in Coastal saline zone is partly compensated by

„fishing and pisciculture‟ which is reported by a significantly higher percentage of sample

households compared to other district. It is expected as coastal fishing is an important activity

16

for many households (especially landless) in this district, the scope of which is absent in other

districts.

The agricultural backwardness of Bankura (mostly Lateritic zone) can be detected from the

fact that a smaller percentage of households there are engaged in agro-related business

compared to other districts. This is explained by the fact that such business scope is more for

vegetable cultivation and winter crops, which are more prevalent in other agriculturally

forward zones. The district, however, seems to compensate the scarcity of agricultural

income by livestock earning, as the percentage of households reported such earning is highest

among the four districts.

Jalpaiguri (Terai Alluvial) stands out as the one which has a significant earning from small

tea plantations, which thrived in this zone for the last two decades. Our later analysis will

show that this additional opportunity provided by the soil characteristics has made the

agricultural income quite high in that zone.

Other important finding from Table-7 is that for all districts, there is significant presence of

non-agro-related businesses and other non-farm activities. Close to half of the households had

reported some form of non-farm income across them. Section-1 previously identified that

non-farm income is a significant component of rural earning in West Bengal due to

dominance of marginal and small holders. Households fail to sustain themselves depending

on agriculture alone. Rural earning diversification is, hence, quite large in West Bengal. A

more detailed analysis of these non-farm activities might be of interest here.

Table 8: Composition of other non-farm activities reported by sample households

Broad categories of

Other Non-farm earning activities



Jalpaiguri (Terai

Alluvial)


No. of HHs engaged 70 117 104 95

Percentage of sample household reported to be engaged

Salaried 27 50 24 33

Migrant Labour 23 9 19 33

MGNREG 19 36 61 29

Self Employed 16 15 9 14

Other Activities 79 43 54 64


While the questionnaire included codes for many different earning activities, reporting all of

them in a single table might make the message blurred. Table-8 decomposed the non-farm

activities into few broad categories. The percentages shown in Table-8 are calculated out of

the households which reported at least one of these non-farm activities (including secondary

sources of earning as well). Again they sum up to more than 100 percent because households

might have been engaged in more than one type of non-farm activities.

We can see some interesting points here. The district Burdwan (mostly Gangetic Alluvial)

has a very high percentage of salaried income (including both private and government) while

17

very low presence of migrant labour. This is in conformity with the common idea that the

district‟s average education level is high. This is also corroborated by Table-5 where the

average number for years of schooling of the household head is found to be highest in this

district. The low presence of migrant labour in the same district tells us that availability of

secured local income restricts the outflow of migrant labour. South 24 Parganas (Coastal

Saline) shows a prevalence of migrant labour in survey households. One can correlate this

phenomenon with the relatively lower land endowment and high population density in that

zone.

The primary survey had collected the details of all non-farm activities of all the members of

the sample households and estimated their annual earnings from it. However, the data

revealed that the activities are too many in nature and when distributed over different agro-

climatic zones, the frequency of each specific activity within a single zone is too few to

convey any statistically meaningful estimate. Hence income estimates from the non-farm

sector has been carried out taking all such activities together. The detailed frequency

distribution of these activities across the four agro-climatic zones, however, is provided in

Appendix-3 of this report.

The composition and magnitude of most of these non-farm activities are determined by the

market conditions and the overall local and regional economic scenario. However, one of

them stands out as a direct intervention by the government. The „100 days work programme‟

(MGNREGA), as is widely accepted already, has brought significant changes in the rural

livelihood dynamics. The intensity of its implementation depends on local administrative

efficiency, local political situation and also on the local resource constraints. We wanted to

look into the performance of MGNREGA across survey districts and also the availability of

Jandhan accounts with the „Job Card‟ holders. As Table-8 has already shown, the

implementation of this income generation scheme is found to have a wide variation across

districts. We needed to know whether it is because of lack of job-seekers or because of lack

of job-creation. Table-9 provides some interesting insight in this regard.

Table 9: Availability of Job Card, Jandhan account and work under MGNREGA

No of

sample HH

HHs having Job card for MGNREGA

Got MGNREGA work within last one year Avg. Days

of work (last yr)

% of HHs having Jandhan

account No Yes No Yes

Bankura (Lateritic / Gangetic Alluvilal)

200 54 146 133 13 21.3 18.8

Burdwan (Gangetic Alluvilal / Lateritic)

206 53 153 111 42 28.7 10.0


200 41 159 96 63 35.3 15.9


203 68 135 108 28 33.7 24.7

Total 809 216 593 448 146 29.8 17.4


18

It is seen that the number of job card holders (might be considered as job-seekers) for the

comparable number of households is less in South 24 parganas. This might be due to the fact

that this district has the largest concentration of migrant workers (Table-8) who don‟t stay in

their village for most of the time in a year. But it is clear that though there is enough number

of job-card holders, the availability of MGNREG jobs is lowest in Bankura both in terms of

number of persons getting it and the average number of days per year for which it was

availed (in 2017). This keeps open the possibility that there is enough room for job-creation

through this channel in this rain-fed Lateritic zone. Due to lack of agricultural options in a

conventional way, there might have been a dearth of work plans in MGNREG scheme

coming spontaneously from local bodies in this district.

The field observation suggests that there is good scope for scaling up Integrated Water

Management Projects (IWMP) in Lateritic zone (Bankura, Burdwan) as demonstrated by

some local enterprising associations who could avail them through the patronization of

Assistant Directors of Agriculture (ADAs). Such projects need a lot of manual work in

creating check-dams and dug-wells. Usually the cost of these infrastructures is accounted to

the project itself, whereas MGNREGA provisions could have been used. This finding

suggests that there is good scope of integration of these two projects for the Lateritic zone.

Lastly, as a part of household endowments, it is imperative to have a look at the livestock

holding scenario across the agro-climatic zones. The survey enumerated the possession of

livestock by the respondent households, which is summarized across zones in Table-10.

Table 10: Distribution of livestock across agro-climatic zones

Survey District & zone

Average number of livestock per sample household

Cow / Buffalo

Goat Pig Chicken Duck

Bankura (Lateritic / Gangetic Alluvilal)

2.6 0.9 0.00 1.3 0.6

Burdwan (Gangetic Alluvilal / Lateritic)

1.3 1.2 0.01 1.2 0.8


1.9 0.9 0.00 1.9 0.3


1.0 0.4 0.00 1.4 0.4

Aggregate 1.70 0.85 0.00 1.45 0.51


It is seen that the average number of cows and buffalos is more in Bankura (mainly Lateritic)

which has also reported the maximum percentage of livestock earning activities (Table-7). It

seems that households in this zone are trying to make up for their lack of farming opportunity

through livestock rearing more intensively. The assistance schemes for livestock (free

distribution of livestock and fodder) need to be more concentrated towards this zone as the

households have a better ongoing practice in livestock maintenance.

19

4.2 Cropping pattern and livestock across socio-economic classes One of the prime objectives of this study is to estimate the existing household income level

and its composition across different agro-climatic zones, landholding classes and social

classes. Information collected on these aspects are summarized and presented in this section.

The respondents are categorized on three different aspects separately and the tables and

charts are presented with such categorizations. The categories are specified below:

Table 11: Definition of different categories of survey sample

Type of categorization Category description

Agro-Climatic Zones

1. Gangetic Alluvial : Blocks Ausgram-I & Kalna-II from Burdwan

district; Block Patrasayar from Bankura district11

2. Terai Alluvial : All blocks of Jalpaiguri district

3. Lateritic : Blocks Chhatna & Onda of Bankura district

and Block Salanpur from Burdwan district

4. Coastal Saline: All Blocks of South 24 Parganas district.

Land-holding class

Landless : 0 Hectare

Marginal farmer : 0- 1 Hectare

Small farmer : 1-2 Hectare

Semi-medium farmer: 2-4 Hectare

Medium: 4-10 Hectare

Large: > 10 Hectare

Social class This was done through the household‟s caste identity involving four

categories: 1. SC 2.ST 3.OBC and 4. General

The categorization of landholding class had been done following the official definition of

agricultural size classes as followed in all official estimates in India. However, it is to be

noted that agriculture in West Bengal is characterized by overwhelming presence of marginal

11

There has been some overlap in soil types and district boundaries. In the sampling scheme, Burdwan was

considered Gangetic Alluvial and Bankura as Lateritic. But after Block selections were made based on crop

diversification, it was found that one selected block of Bankura falls under Gangetic Alluvial while one selected

block of Burdwan falls under Lateritic soil type.

20

and small farmers. In our survey also, it turned out that landless, marginal and small farmers

are dominating the sample. There are few households which fall under the semi-medium

category. There is only one sample household which can be characterised as „medium‟. The

averages calculated on the basis of such a small sample size is not statistically valid. So, that

single household has been discarded from the analysis in this section. No „large‟ farmer was

found in our survey sample.

Before presenting the income estimates and its composition across these categories, an

overview of livestock endowments, irrigation status and cropping pattern might be of interest.

These will be useful to provide an idea about the basis on which farm income and income

from agriculture-allied activities are derived. The livestock holding scenario has already been

described across districts. But livestock holding generally has a relation with agricultural

landholding as well. Table-12 described the livestock composition across different

landholding classes over the whole sample.

Table 12: Livestock distribution across land holding classes

Landholding Class

Average number of livestock per sample household

Cow/Buffalo Goat Pig Chicken Duck

Landless 0.8 0.8 0.01 1.2 0.4

Marginal 2.0 0.9 0.00 1.6 0.5

Small 3.3 0.7 0.00 1.7 1.0

Semi-Medium 3.9 0.4 0.00 2.0 0.2

Aggregate 1.70 0.85 0.00 1.45 0.51


The above table clearly shows that the cow-holding is positively related with agricultural

land, but that of medium livestock (goat) has an inverse relation with it. One can conclude

that landless and small holders try to obtain income from goats as they don‟t get sufficient

fodder from own agriculture to maintain their cows/buffalos. For chicken and duck, the

distribution doesn‟t show any relation with households‟ landholding. This table implies that

distribution of livestock and fodder, if done with the aim of helping the lowly endowed rural

households, should be done in the form of goats and not cows/buffalos.

It is common knowledge that farm income crucially depends on the availability of irrigation

water. Availability of irrigation increases the gross acreage of a farm household and hence

enhances its farm income significantly. The survey listed the different sources of irrigation

for the farming households in the sample (including own land and leased-in-land). The

cropping intensity for each household is calculated as the number of crops they raised over

the last one year (from 1 to 3). The average cropping intensity has been calculated (averaged

over households) for each type of irrigation sources. A total of 537 households (out of a total

of 809) had their own cultivation within last one year with unambiguous responses regarding

sources of irrigation. The distribution of such households and the corresponding average

21

cropping intensities across different irrigation sources is described in Table-13. The table

helps in understanding that ground water is the most reliable irrigation source for raising

crops in winter and summer. Availability of ground water irrigation (using shallow and

submersible) along with pond and canal lifting irrigation enables the farmers to raise almost

three crops per year (cropping intensity of 2.8 or above). However, pond and canal lifting

irrigation also does not lag far behind. When such facilities are available, farmers can

certainly raise two crops and in almost half of the cases can raise three crops per years as

well. Though ground water is the most assured irrigation source, intensification of ground

water use has serious ecological implication in the long run. The table helps in understanding

that pond irrigation (rain water harvesting) and canal irrigation (surface water management)

can be good alternatives to ground water for irrigation. The table also highlights the fact that

irrigation is an important input for agriculture, as rain fed (no irrigation) plots are lagging far

behind in cropping intensity compared to their irrigated counterparts. Any intervention in

enhancing farm income has to do something about irrigation infrastructure.

Table 13: Cropping intensity across different types of irrigation and across zones

Average Number of crops per year

Irrigation Type Gangetic

Alluvial

Terai

Alluvial Lateritic

Coastal

Saline Aggregate

Only ground water (shallow/submersible) 2.0 1.9 2.0 1.6 1.9

Only pond water (lift irrigation) 1.5 1.8 1.3 1.8 1.6

Only canal water (lift irrigation) 1.9 1.5 1.2 1.9 1.7

Ground water and Pond water 2.1 2.2 1.2 2.2 2.1

Ground water and canal water 2.3 No Obs No Obs No Obs 2.3

No Irrigation 1.4 1.4 1.1 1.3 1.3

Aggregate 1.8 1.7 1.3 1.5 1.6


Before presenting the estimates of farm income, it is important to get an idea about the

cropping pattern across different agro-climatic zones. It is observed that paddy is the

predominant crop in monsoon season barring one or two households in all agro-climatic

zones. There is no variation in this phenomenon in West Bengal and hence it is not

interesting as information. All other major crops that are reported to have been cultivated

within last one year by the respondent households have been identified and some of them

have been classified under broad categories like pulses, oilseeds and vegetables. The

percentage of sample households that are reported to have cultivated them is shown in Table-

14. Calculation of percentages was done on the basis of the total number of sample

households (first row in Table-14) including the landless. This is because, it is often

observed, that the landless households leases-in small plots in the winter or summer from the

large owners and can make profit out of vegetable and other cultivations after putting

intensive family labour, which is otherwise not that profitable for large landowners who

usually hire all their labour input.

22

Table-14 shows that potato (winter) and summer paddy are the most important crops apart

from monsoon paddy in the Gangetic Alluvial zone. Oilseeds and vegetables come next in

ranking in this zone. For Terai Alluvial zone vegetables and potato in winter and jute in

summer rank high. For Lateritic zone, there is no significant crop in summer but a third of the

households reported some vegetable cultivation in winter. For the coastal saline zone,

vegetables and pulses are the two important crops after monsoon paddy.

The cropping pattern also indicates that the Terai Alluvial zone is the most diverse in farming

activities. It turns out that this zone reaps the highest farm income for its soil quality and

water availability sources from innumerable Himalayan rivers flowing through it. Contrary to

popular belief, the survey finds that Terai Alluvial zone scores over Gangetic Alluvial zone in

terms of agricultural prosperity and diversity. This is added by the fact that certain blocks in

the zone has a soil type appropriate for tea cultivation and a significant number of landed

households are having small tea plantations. This is not reported in Table-14, as tea is a

multi-year crop and cannot be associated with any season.

Table 14: Cropping pattern across different agro-climatic zones

Agro climatic Zones

Gangetic Alluvial Terai Alluvial Lateritic Coastal Saline

No. of sample HH 224 200 182 203

Percentage

of sample

HHs

producing

Summer Paddy 30.4 6.5 7.7 11.3

Winter Paddy 1.8 0.5 0.0 1.0

Wheat 0.9 1.5 1.6 11.8

Maize 0.0 11.5 0.0 0.0

Jute 7.1 35.0 0.0 0.0

Oilseed 15.6 10.0 19.8 6.4

Pulses 0.0 0.0 1.1 20.2

Potato 46.4 32.0 13.7 9.4

Vegetables 19.2 57.0 39.6 50.2


23

4.3 Household earning and its composition

One of the most important objectives of this study is to estimate the income of the rural

households across different agro-climatic zones and its broad compositions. The survey

collected information on all sources of earning from each of the sample households and

calculated annual income from these sources across all seasons. In doing so, income from

agriculture has been calculated by deducting the cost from production and sale. Where

household inputs were used and the production was not sold (self consumption by

households), the values of inputs and output have been imputed by corresponding average

prices obtained from the same village for respective inputs and output.

One word of caution is important here. Rural India as a whole is getting lots of assistance in

different forms under different central and state government schemes. The villagers are

always motivated to respond in a pre-determined way so as to present themselves as poor.

The survey was conducted by repeated clarification to the respondents that they are not going

to get any immediate benefit from their responses as the report will be totally anonymous

about respondents‟ identity. Still, it is understood, that the embedded idea inside their mind

barred them from revealing all of their earning sources. The estimates presented here might

be an underestimation in this count. However, assuming that this phenomenon is universal

across different agro-climatic zones, one can consider that the extent of under-reporting is the

same across the zones. Under this assumption, the comparability of the zonal averages stand

out as reliable. Also, the percentage shares of earning from diverse activities are reliable if we

assume that under-reporting is not systematic for any particular set of activities.

From the collected detailed information, earning sources had been categorized under few

broad heads as follows:

Agricultural earning in Monsoon (farm-income)

Agricultural earning in Winter by own cultivation (farm-income)

Agricultural earning in Summer by own cultivation (farm-income)

Earning from plantation crops by own cultivation (tea and betel leaf) (farm-

income)

Earning from agriculture-related activities like farm labour in crops and

plantations, livestock earning, earning from pisciculture, earning from ago-related

business (Allied activities)

Other Non-farm activities (all other remaining earning sources)

The following table describes the survey estimates of average net income of the sample

households across the four agro-climatic zones. In calculating the „net income from

agriculture‟, input costs had been deducted from the gross earning including the imputed

costs of own inputs like family labour. The zonal averages had been calculated including all

landholding classes and social classes. As was hinted previously, the Terai Alluvial zone

shows the highest average income for rural households. However, it might be noted that a

significant part of it comes from small tea plantations that dot many of the blocks in that

24

zone. As expected, the rain fed Lateritic zone reported the lowest earning in absolute terms,

but the lowest share of agricultural earning is reported by the Coastal saline zone. This is not

contradictory as the Coastal saline zone has the largest population density, lowest average

landholding and highest migrant labour concentration. It might also be noted that the lower

earning in Lateritic zones comes from highest average landholding and household size

compared to other zones. So, if the earnings are normalized by landholding and household

size, the Lateritic zone‟s position in the table will recede further. The low agricultural earning

share in Coastal saline zone seems to be partly compensated by betel leaf plantations and

income from non-farm sector.

Table 15: Detailed composition of HH earning across agro-climatic zones

Gangetic

Alluvial

Terai

Alluvial Lateritic

Coastal

Saline

Avg. Annual income (all sources) (Rs.)

(Coefficient of Variation)

30,578

(2.1) 58,132

(2.3) 28,890

(2.9) 29,833

(2.1)

Avg. HH Size 4.44 4.67 5.4 4.76

Avg. Land Holdings (Hectare) 0.4 0.39 0.45 0.24

% of Income Earned

Monsoon Agriculture 33.3 11.3 29.6 16.1

Winter agriculture 8.9 14.3 5.1 9.7

Summer Agriculture 11.1 11.1 6.4 5.5

Total earning from Agriculture (%) 53.3 36.7 41.1 31.3

Plantation

Earning from tea plantations (%) 0 15.8 0 0

Earning from betel leaf plantations (%) 0 0 0 6.3

Earning from Allied activities (%) 14.2 15.3 14.6 14.8

Earning from other Non-Farm activities

(%) 32.5 32.2 44.3 47.6


Table-15 reports the percentage shares of earning from a detailed classification of sources. A

simpler comparison of earning from broad sources across agro-climatic zones is facilitated by

the following figure.

25

Figure 2: Composition of average household income across agro-climatic zones

The zonal averages provided in the previous discussion somewhat blurred the extent of

inequality across households within each zone. The extent of inequality in income within

each zone is indicted by the high Coefficient of Variation as indicated in the corresponding

parenthesis. Such variations are resulting primarily from the differences in land endowments

among the households within each zone. So, it is important to understand the income

composition across different landholding class. This is more so, as “doubling of farmers‟

income” target should need interventions prioritized for the small holders, especially in a

state like West Bengal where they are the majority. Table-16 provides similar information,

but across different landholding classes taking all the zones together.

Table 16: Detailed composition of HH earning across landholding classes

Landless

Margi-

nal Small

Semi-

medium

Avg. Annual income (all sources) (Rs.) 23,017 39,429 89,485 89,378

Avg. HH Size 4.19 4.77 6.97 6.78

Avg. Land Holdings (Hectare) 0 0.36 1.35 2.43

% of

Income

Earned

Monsoon Agriculture 7 23 27 51

Winter agriculture 6 13 12 5

Summer Agriculture 3 10 13 5

Total earning from Agriculture (%) 17 46 52 61

Planta-

tions

Earning from tea plantations (%) 0 4 17 0

Earning from betel leaf plantations (%) 0 2 0 0

Earning from Allied activities (%) 28 12 7 24

Earning from other Non-Farm activities

(%) 55 36 24 13


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Gangetic Alluvial Terrai Alluvial Lateritic Coastal SalineAn

nu

al

earn

ing

( '000 R

s)

Agro-climatic zones

Farm Income Income from Allied Activities Other Non-farm Income

26

The data revealed in Table-16 indicates that while the landless households are surviving with

less than Rs. 2000 per month, the marginal landholders are earning around Rs. 3500 per

month and the small and medium farmers are earning around Rs. 7500 per month from all

sources. The Table is in conformity with the expectation that larger landholding is associated

with a larger family size and greater share of agriculture in total household earning. They in

turn, have lesser proportion of income coming from „other non-farm‟ activities.

One interesting phenomenon comes out regarding earning from small tea plantations. This is

only available in Terai Aluuvial zone (Jalpaiguri district). As already shown in Table-14, as

much as 15.8 percent of average income comes from small tea plantations in this zone.

Table-16 shows that much of this income is being enjoyed by the large landowners. From the

field discussions, it was revealed that small-holders cannot avail the benefit of tea-earning as

converting their small land (sometimes only one or two plots) into tea plantations means

sacrificing their agricultural return for at least three years. Many of them expressed

willingness to convert their land if institutional support is provided to them for such

conversions. It calls for arrangement of longer term credit where repayment can start only

after three years.

Lastly, it would also be interesting to see how such earning composition changes across

different social class. This is described in Table-17. It is observed that Scheduled Tribes are

relatively worse off in terms of their absolute value of annual earning, compared to the other

social classes. It is interesting to note that average annual income of SC, OBC and General

castes are fairly comparable in terms of their magnitude and composition. It states that, at

least in West Bengal, government sponsored assistance programmes for rural income

generation need no quota for SC and OBC section, though there might be a need for special

support for ST category.

Table 17: Detailed composition of HH earning across social classes

SC ST OBC General

Avg. Annual income (all sources) (Rs.) 37,314 22,930 37,774 38,913

Avg. HH Size 4.35 5.22 4.85 5.07

Avg. Land Holdings (Hectare) 0.25 0.38 0.5 0.42

% of

Income

Earned

Monsoon Agriculture 14 28 20 25

Winter agriculture 16 4 7 8

Summer Agriculture 10 0 8 10

Total earning from Agriculture (%) 39 32 34 43

Plantations Earning from tea plantations (%) 7 0 4 6

Earning from betel leaf plantations (%) 0 0 0 3

Earning from Allied activities (%) 14 20 18 14

Earning from other Non-Farm activities (%) 40 48 44 34


27

4.4 Delivery of government assistance The previous section provided an idea about the earning distribution from different sources

and the relative importance of farm sector to rural households across different respondent

categories. This is important baseline information for assessing the enhancements of farm

income at some future point of time. But rural India has witnessed a large number of

agricultural assistance schemes and rural income enhancement schemes. The success in

delivering benefits through these schemes crucially depends on the delivery mechanism. As

is evident prom the profile of sample households, the rural households are lowly educated. To

avail the institutional benefits, they need to be made aware of the alternative schemes, their

own eligibility and the procedure to obtain the benefits.

In rural West Bengal, these farm-related benefits are almost always channelized by the Office

of the Assistant Director of Agriculture (ADA), which exists at Block Level. The ADA

Office is commonly referred to as „agriculture office‟ by the villagers and they know that for

every farm-related queries and grievances, the ADA Office is their supreme authority. The

task of liaison with the common farmers in a block formally rests with the Krishi Prayukti

Sahayaks (KPSs) in ADA office who are in the official pay roll.

In all our meeting with ADAs (involving the KPSs) we have sensed that there is a

tremendous work-load in every ADA office and there is a serious shortage of KPS personnel.

We have gathered information from the ADA offices regarding the currently vacant KPS

posts. This is described in Table-18.

Table 18: Shortage of required personnel in Block Agricultural Offices

District Block (Agro-Climatic Zone)

No. of

sanctioned

KPS post

No. of KPS

actually in service

(as of 30.11.2017)

% of vacant

KPS positions

BANKURA

Onda (Lateritic) 18 4 78

Chhatna (Lateritic & Gangetic

Alluvial) 13 5 62

Patrasayar (Gangetic Alluvial) 10 4 60

BURDWAN

Ausgram-I (Gangetic Alluvial) 16 2 88

Kalna-II (Gangetic Alluvial) 9 1 89

Salanpur (Lateritic) 6 2 67

JALPAIGURI

Rajganj (Terai Alluvial) 22 9 59

Moynaguri (Terai Alluvial) 23 6 74

Alipurduar-II (Terai Alluvial) 18 4 78

SOUTH 24

PARGANAS

Mathurapur-I (Coastal Saline) 10 1 90

Diamond Harbour-I (Coastal

Saline) 11 2 82

Patharpratima (Coastal Saline) 17 1 94

Over all sample blocks 173 41 76

[Source: responses from Block ADA Offices: Primary data]

28

It is felt from the field experience that in the absence of ready-to-consult personnel from the

ADA offices, the farmers are often in dark about their entitlements and fails to avail the

institutional assistance even if there is reasonable provision. It is felt that providing sufficient

personnel in these offices is an issue of the state administration which might not be solved in

the short run. In light of this observation, the study recommends inclusion of outside

facilitating agencies to bridge the information gap with the farmers. The recommendations

are made in the appropriate section of this report.

The much emphasised Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) and provision of

institutional credit for agriculture at concessional rate is in force already. But it requires

farmers to have their bank accounts and Kishan Credit Cards (KCC). The study wanted to

have a baseline on the availability of KCC with the respondent households as well. But for

obtaining a KCC (issued by designated commercial bank branches, facilitated by the ADA

office), one needs to show official updated land titles to the bank. The study finds that there is

a general reluctance from banks‟ side in issuing KCC as banks‟ branch managers (who are

mostly outsiders) feel that more KCCs are potential sources of creating bad loans.

Table 19: Availability of Kishan Credit Cards (KCC) across sample households

District Block

Total

number of

survey HHs

% of HHs

obtained KCC

through Samabay

Samity

% of HHs

obtained KCC

directly from

Bank

% of HHs

without

KCC

Bankura

Chhatna 60 6.7 0.0 93.3

Onda 80 5.0 5.0 90.0

Patrasayer 60 13.3 11.7 75.0

Burdwan

Ausgram-I 84 11.9 7.1 81.0

Kalna-II 60 50.0 5.0 45.0

Salanpur 62 1.6 3.2 95.2

Jalpaiguri

Alipurduar-II 60 18.3 6.7 75.0

Maynaguri 61 9.8 18.0 72.1

Rajganj 79 3.8 24.1 72.2

South 24

Parganas

Diamond Harbour-I 60 0.0 5.0 95.0

Mathurapur-I 61 0.0 6.6 93.4

Patharpratima 82 7.3 6.1 86.6

Total 809 10.3 8.4 81.3

[Source: Primary Survey, August-October, 2017]

29

In absence of a clear land title, a farmer can also get a KCC through the mediation and

endorsement of registered Farmers‟ Co-operatives (Samabay Samiti). These Samiti‟s also

help farmers with their paper works and attracts applicants who have a clear land title as well.

The survey finds that most of the KCCs issued in West Bengal are through this Samabay

Samiti route. Table-18 describes this. The table clearly shows that in spite of great efforts

from the part of the authority, many procedural obstacles have left majority of the rural

households in West Bengal without a KCC. The main reasons identified for this failure are:

Lack of clear land titles for most of the farmers. For many farming households, the

cultivable lands had been subdivided among brothers after their father‟s death, or after

their separation from the common kitchen, without officially recording the titles.

Lack of procedural knowledge to obtain the KCC and aversion for paper works with

low education level

Reluctance of the banks to issue KCC as it is looked upon as a potential liability for

the bank branch

The renewed and simplified crop insurance scheme (PMFBY) and schemes to encourage

farmers to get their soil test done has also fared very poorly among sample households. The

crop insurance comes automatically if institutional credit is availed through KCC. But the

previous table suggest the poor state of KCC availability with the farmers. Without KCC, the

farmers are found to be unaware of how to get their crops insured. No designated official

person was found to be there to help farmers get their crops insured. Also farmers often

Krishi Samabay Samiti (KSS) in West Bengal

Krishi Samabay Samities (KSSs) are essentially Self-Help Groups (SHGs) formed by a group of farmers

which in turn combines to Primary Agricultural Co-operative Credit Societies (PACS). The West Bengal

government, in exercise of the power conferred upon it by West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 1983,

permitted the PACS‟ to include SHGs as members. NABARD-sponsored SHG programme acted as a

booster and the groups in the co-operative sector assumed the shape of a movement in the state. Through

periodical meetings and equal doses of regular savings, group dynamism develops amongst members over

months of existence and they become eligible for credit-linkage through the PACS. The Central Co-

operative Banks act as the facilitators and the State Co-operative Bank as the coordinator

(http://coopwb.org/self-help-group.php). The survey experiences shows KSSs play a significant role for

availing agricultural credit for its members. The credit fund of a registered KSS comes through the Central

Cooperative bank via State Cooperative Banks and these Societies are more efficient in channelizing the

credit to the eligible recipients. KSSs are important for the following reasons:

The KSSs help its members with their paper works in obtaining KCC and credit

These KSSs help the credit providing institutions in identifying the prompt payers

KSSs disburse the sanctioned credit to a group of farmers, thereby creating a multilateral guarantee

system for credit repayment

It helps its members by providing fertilizers, pesticides, tillage equipments (like harvester, zero

tillage machine, drum seeders etc) at a lower price.

Many such Samitis have own storehouse where members are provided with storage facilities of

their products at a low cost.

But the FGDs reveal few shortcomings of these Societies as well:

The multilateral guarantee process fostered by KSS sometimes acts against the prompt payers. If

the entire amount of credit is not repaid in time, then as members of the group the prompt payers

are also deprived of required credit through this channel in the next season.

Like other Registered Co-operatives, the credit availed through the mediation of KSS requires a

certain percentage of that money to be invested in Society‟s share capital. It effectively raises the

cost of credit to the farmer who needs the fund for short term agricultural use and who are not

interested in raising their financial assets (Society‟s share).

http://coopwb.org/self-help-group.php

30

complained about the narrow coverage of crop insurance schemes. Only few crops can be

insured in certain seasons. Table-20 describes the ground reality of crop insurance and soil

test among the sample households.

Table 20: Ground level situation with crop insurance and soil tests

District



Jalpaiguri (Terai

Alluvial)


Total

Number of sample HH 200 206 200 203 809

% of sample HHs with own land 71.5 61.7 70 66 67.2

% of land-owning HHs who availed any

type of crop insurance during 2017 11.2 27.6 15.7 8.2 15.4

% of land-owning HHs who have any soil

test report ever carried out 2.8 7.1 7.9 8.2 6.4

% of land-owning HHs who submitted soil

sample but did not receive report 20.3 20.5 27.1 10.4 19.7


The last row of Table-20 is interesting. It was found that some enterprising local leaders

(often organizers of Farmers‟ Clubs) and even some local fertilizer distributors recently has

enticed rural households to get their soil test reports done. They approached the farmers and

assisted to collect the soil samples in the prescribed manner. Farmers did it under the

impression that a soil test report might be required to get loans or crop insurance in coming

days. However, they are unaware of what has happened to the report after they submitted

their soil samples. The reports didn‟t come yet and they also don‟t know who are supposed to

deliver them. It seems there is a lot of communication gap on this count. The farmers don‟t

know exactly in which way they will be benefited through a soil test report and where to get

it done. In their opinion, they themselves know their soil quality quite well. If there are expert

counselling/consultancy that are supposed to follow from the ADA office after soil test

reports, they are willing to get it done. But there is no assurance of a tangible benefit from

soil tests. On top of it, most farmers don‟t know about any laboratory facility near their

locations where soil test reports are prepared. This study recommends setting up of

specialized soil testing laboratories adjacent to ADA offices in each block either purely by

engaging private agencies through financial incentives, or through PPP models. Soil tests

reports should be provided in a time-bound way and it should be accompanied by expert

opinion on the optimum cropping pattern for that soil. From the findings from field survey,

the study also recommends wider coverage of PMFBY incorporating more crops and

vegetables covering different seasons.

4.5 The rural credit market and credit availability

31

One crucial input for enhancement and intensification of farm activities, may be right after

irrigation facility, is agricultural credit. A policy oriented study on possibility of doubling

farmers income needs to be detailed on this issue. In this study, detailed information on the

respondents‟ current indebtedness, their purpose for obtaining credit, credit sources and

repayment periods was collected and analysed. Rural households often take credit for

unproductive reasons and emergencies like consumption, social occasions, health issues and

non-farm business ventures. Looking at the stated purposes of taking credit, the study

identified the credit profiles which were taken purely for enhancement and diversification of

activities relating to agriculture, pisciculture and animal husbandry. The nature of such credit

provides an idea about the credit need in the rural sector of West Bengal for farming and

allied activities. These are summarized in this section.

Table 21: Distribution of sources of current credit for farming and allied activities

Credit Sources

Total number of current credit availed by respondent HHs across zones



Jalpaiguri (Terai

Alluvial)

South 24 Parganas

(Coastal Saline) Total

Through SHGs 8 2 9 1 20

Directly from Gramin Banks 0 0 4 1 5

Directly from other commercial Banks without KCC

4 6 32 7 49

From commercial banks through KCC 15 11 21 4 51

Through Krishi Samabay Samity 21 39 10 4 74

BSKP12 1 0 0 0 1

Neighbour / Relative 1 2 4 2 9

Private money lenders 8 15 14 5 42

Others 3 6 7 5 21

Total 62 81 101 29 272


Table-21 shows that there are 272 instances of current credit availed by the respondent

households that were taken solely for farming and allied activities. It also shows that the

majority of them are presently institutional. But it is also notable that private money lenders

are still significantly present in rural West Bengal. The Coastal saline zone (district of South

24 Parganas) turned out to be a poor performer in credit market while Terai alluvial zone

(Jalpaiguri district) is the most active. This is in conformity with the relative dynamism in

farm sector in these districts. Previous sections have shown that Terai Alluvial is the most

active zone in agriculture followed by Gangetic Alluvial. The proportion of current credit

instances are spread over the zones in similar line. It reaffirms the claim that these responses

are indeed related to credits availed for farming and allied activities. The coastal saline zone

stands out as the zone with the least penetration of institutional credit. As much as 40 percent

of the total number of credit in this zone had originated from non-institutional sources.

12 Bangla Swanirbhar Karmasansthan Prakalpa (BSKP) is a special vehicle launched by the Government of

West Bengal to generate self-employment in the urban & rural areas through promotion of tiny scale units of

production, manufacturing, trade or services.

32

Table-22 provides the break-up of these credits across different usage. It is seen that over 90

percent of these credits are indeed related to farming. Animal husbandry scores over

pisciculture for credit requirement.

Table 22: Distribution of number of credits availed across usage

Credit Sources

Total number of current credits availed by respondent HHs across

farming and allied usage

Agriculture Pisciculture Animal

husbandry TOTAL

Through SHG 13 1 6 20

Gramin Bank 4 0 1 5

Commercial Bank (without KCC) 43 1 5 49

Commercial Bank (under KCC) 49 1 1 51

Through Krishi Samabay Samiti 74 0 0 74

BSKP 0 0 1 1

Neighbour/ Relative 7 1 1 9

Private money lenders 38 3 1 42

Others 20 0 1 21

Total 249 7 17 272


To understand the credit needs further, we analysed the average sizes of current credits, their

repayment periods and the effective average annual interest rate that the debtors are paying

for them. Such information reveals the nature and problems in rural credit market. From

Table-23, it is observed that regional rural banks (Gramin Bank) are disbursing credit for a

much longer period and of a larger average size. Such credits, though availed by very few

households, carry the lowest average rate of interest. Credits from SHGs carry an effectively

high rate of interest for the borrowers, smaller in size and have a smaller repayment period. It

was found that credits provided by private money lenders bear a very high rate of interest and

also have the lowest repayment period. It is understood that such credit, if failed to get repaid

within stipulated short time, attracts an even higher interest.

One interesting point might be noted relating to the effective interest rate for credits availed

through KCC or KSS. As per official guideline, the rate of interest is linked to the base rate

and left to the discretion of banks. Generally it is 7 percent with a 4% subvention provision

by central government for prompt payers. From the primary survey it was found that previous

defaulters often ended up paying a higher rate of interest (7+4= 11 percent) if their repayment

of principal does not take place within stipulated period. The study finding of more than 7

percent effective rate of interest thus indicates the presence of some defaulters among the

respondents.

33

Table 23: Credit sizes, duration and interest across sources

Credit Source

Average credit

size (Rs.)

Average credit

duration (months)

Average Annual

Interest rate

payable

Through SHG 21,825 12 19.9

Gramin Bank 85,200 30 7.0

Commercial Bank (without KCC) 58,384 21 10.2

Commercial Bank (under KCC) 51,461 13 7.4

Through Krishi Samabay Samiti 33,021 13 7.7

Neighbour / Relative 38,222 Unspecified 45.0

Private money lenders 40,588 10 46.7

Others 16,321 12 10.9


Table-24 further breaks up the credit sizes according to their usage across different credit

sources. Though the averages shown against pisciculture and animal husbandry had been

calculated on the basis of very few observations and hence might not be statistically reliable,

it can be sensed that pisciculture and animal husbandry requires credits of larger sizes.

Table 24: Average credit size for different usage

Credit Sources Agriculture Pisciculture Animal

Husbandry

SHG 27,731 10,000 11,000

Gramin Bank 69,000 No observation 1,50,000

Commercial Bank 53,186 70,000 1,00,760

Krishi Samabay Samity 33,021 No observation No observation

K.C.C 51,827 50,000 35,000

BSKP No observation No observation 1,30,000

Neighbour/ Relative 19,143 2,00,000 10,000

Private money lenders 33,413 1,40,000 15,000

Others 16,638 No observation 10,000

Average 38,217 94,000 57,720


34

Agricultural credit through KCC route is the most desirable way of financing farmers‟

requirement. We have already seen (Table-22) that most of the credits through KCC are

facilitated by the Krishi Samabay Samitis. There are some hidden costs which the debtor

might need to bear for availing such credits. We wanted a look at the differences, if any, of

KCC loans availed through these alternative channels. Table-25 describes this. Table 25: Nature of credit against KCC availed through alternative channels

Source

Number of

HHs having

KCC

Number of

HHs having

loan from

KCC

Average

Loan

duration

(in month)

Average

Annual Rate

of Interest

(%)

Average

Loan Size

(Rs.)

Credit against KCC

facilitated by Krishi

Samabay Samity 83 74 13 7.6 33,493

Credit against KCC

directly from commercial

banks 68 49 13 7.3 50,856


It is seen that proportionately more number of households availed credit through KCC if it is

mediated by the Samabay Samitis. It implies that these Samitis might be following up with

procedural help to arrange credits for its members. Though the rate of interest incurred is

marginally higher and the loan size is less, compared to the cases where loans are directly

availed from commercial banks. The finding that proportionately less number of KCC

holders could avail credit (without the mediation of Samabay Samitis) is in conformity with

the field experience that local managers of commercial banks are reluctant to grant credit on

KCC account.

4.6. Impact of irrigation and credit on farm income

For enhancing farm income, it is a common knowledge that irrigation should be improved

and institutional credit should be made available to the farmers. Since the aim of this study is

to find out how „doubling of farmers‟ income‟ is possible within limited time, we wanted to

check the incremental effect of household income from these two crucial farm inputs.

Due to the carefully dispersed sampling strategy, the study was able to include enough

sample households with varied irrigation facilities for each agro-climatic zone. As we have

also collected detailed credit profile of the respondents, we were able to separate out the

sample household in each zone in the following three categories:

Landowning households with no irrigation facility and no agricultural credit availed

during 2017

Landowning households with some type of irrigation sources in winter and/or

summer, but no agricultural credit availed during 2017

Landowning households with some type of irrigation sources in winter and/or summer

and also some agricultural credit availed during 2017

35

The study wanted to look at the differences in average annual income of these three

categories of households across the agro-climatic zones. Since the categories are made on the

basis of irrigation and agricultural credit, the inputs are obviously related to the agricultural

landholding of the households. For meaningful comparability, the household earnings had

been normalized with respect to landholding by converting the farm incomes into a common

„per hectare earning from agricultural land‟.

Figure 3: Effect of irrigation and credit on households' annual income

The figure above establishes very convincingly the effect of these two crucial inputs on

agricultural income. The agro-climatic zone wise distribution also helps us to understand the

relative importance of these two inputs for a representative household with „one hectare of

farmland‟. The figure shows that for Terai Alluvial zone, both credit and irrigation has high

potential to enhance farm income. In Gangetic alluvial zone, the potential for such increase is

more through credit provision but less through irrigation. In Coastal saline zone, irrigation is

a greater need than credit to enhance farm earning. The corresponding numbers are provided

in Table-26.

Table 26: Estimated ‘income effect’ of irrigation and credit provision

Agro-climatic

zones

Average annual agricultural income (calculated as Rs/per hectare)

Estimated annual HH income

from agriculture per hectare

without any irrigation and

credit provision

Estimated %

increase in

income through

irrigation alone

Estimated %

increase in income

through irrigation

and credit provision

Gangetic Alluvial 44,528 12 65

Terrai Alluvial 50,894 69 189

Lateritic 25,282 70 128

Coastal Saline 44,960 47 57


0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

Gangetic Alluvial Terrai Alluvial Lateritic Coastal SalineAnnual

Inco

me

per

hec

tare

(R

s.)

Agro-Climatic Zones

No irrigation and no credit availed

With irrigation but no credit availed

With irrigation and with some credit availed

36

The above analyses indicate that through proper delivery mechanism of agricultural credits in

required quantity, coupled with appropriate irrigation facilities, „doubling of agricultural

income‟ is technically possible within a short time period. However, putting in place the

required infrastructure and making institutional changes are the main challenges that need to

be addressed by the policy authority.

4.7 Households’ awareness, problems and diversification plans

In the Focus Group Discussions in various places throughout this survey, and in conducting

the household surveys, it transpired that there is a communication gap regarding various

farmers‟ assistance schemes throughout all agro-climatic zones. It seems that there is no

dearth of assistance programmes for rural agricultural households to support their farming

activities. But the rules and regulations, the appropriate authority to approach, the eligibility

criteria and the exact nature of assistance that the beneficiaries are eligible to get remained

largely unclear to the sample respondents. They often don‟t know under which scheme they

are eligible to get benefits, though they sometimes makes applications facilitated by some

neighbours or local leaders who come up with their own personal reasons.

During the survey, each respondent was asked about their awareness regarding some major

assistance programmes relating to agriculture. The respondents‟ awareness level had been

judged by the interviewer and one is marked as „aware‟ against a specific programme/

scheme if he/she was able to tell the eligibility criteria and the nature of benefits correctly.

The following table shows that, except for Kishan Credit Card, the awareness level for other

major centrally sponsored assistance schemes is abysmally low among the respondents.

Table 27: Sources of awareness for major Assistance Programmes

Sources of information Kishan

Credit Card

Pradhan

Mantri Fasal

Bima Yojna

Paramparagat

Krishi Vikas

Yojna

Pradhan

Mantri Krishi

Sinchai Yojna

Village Panchayet Office 80 4 2 1

Office of the ADA 36 0 2 0

Local Political leader 20 0 0 0

Neighbours/ relatives 66 4 2 0

Electronic Media 3 0 0 1

Print Media 3 1 0 0

Total number of respondents who are

reasonably aware 208 9 6 2


It comes out that the village Panchayet is a better source for awareness building. Other than

that, awareness is generally propagated through fellow villagers and relatives. The financial

provisions for making awareness camps regarding various agricultural assistance

programmes might be shifted to the Panchayet offices rather than burdening the office of the

ADA with this responsibility. Advertisement in print or electronic media seems to have not

worked for the programmes listed above.

37

In continuation of the discussions with the respondents, the study elicited the remarks from

the households regarding major problems that they consider as bottleneck to enhance their

farm income. They were asked to mention two to three such problems according to their

priority ranking. Some of the responses were vague and discarded. The rest is summarized in

the following Table-28. The sum of responses adds up to more than the sample size because

more than one response was considered. The usefulness of the table is that it reveals the

overall priority ranking of major problems as revealed by the respondents.

Table 28: Major bottlenecks in enhancing farm income as envisaged by the respondents

Problem statements No. of HHs agreed out

of 809 HHs

% of HHs identifying the

problem as very

important

Lack of procedural knowledge to access

government support schemes 591 73.1

Lack of access to KCC and government officials 385 47.6

Lack of knowledge in bank loan procedure and

bank‟s reluctance to help 135 16.7

Lack of assistance in getting soil test report

done 112 13.8

Lack of mortgageable assets for availing credit 54 6.7

Lack of nearby wholesale market 40 4.9

Lack of good transport facility 22 2.7

Lack of local availability of raw materials 9 1.1


The table brings out the fact that there is a serious problem of delivery of various farmers‟

assistance schemes floated by both central and state government. The work burden of the

office of the ADA and absence of sufficient number of KPSs has been identified and

discussed earlier. The procedural hazards in availing agricultural credit through banks have

also come out in earlier discussions. Table- 28 confirms our earlier analysis.

The respondents were also asked about their most important requirement for increasing farm

income. Again some of the responses were vague and discarded. The rest is summarized in

Table-29. It comes out that most of them are in need for some help in irrigation front. Either

they are asking for government to provide better infrastructure for surface water storage or

management (building check dams, excavating ponds, extending irrigation canal etc.), or they

want government to set up facilities for cheaper access to ground water (government

provision of shallow/submersible pump sets). A significant number of them are also looking

for better procurement and support price for their farm products.

38

Table 29: Households' expectation regarding government support

Households‟ needs for enhancing farm income

No. of HHs

mentioning the

requirement

( out of 809 HHs)

% of HHs

identifying the

requirement as most

important

Development of new irrigation infrastructure

(check dam/ pond/ canal extension) 233 28.8

Govt. help in availing irrigation equipment

(shallow/ submersible) 205 25.3

Better support price and easier procurement of farm

produce 137 16.9

Various types of training (farming and allied) 74 9.1

Timely seed distribution by government 33 4.1

Special credit schemes for livestock and fisheries 11 1.4

Greater coverage for Crop Insurance schemes 10 1.2

Special marketing assistance for organic products 4 0.5


Finally, respondents were also asked about any additional earning plan they are

contemplating with, which is apart from their existing farm practices. They were also asked

about the credit requirement and expected repayment period to execute such plans. The

responses were divided into some broad categories. This is reported in Table-30.

Table 30: Households' plans for diversification and corresponding credit requirement

Types of individual income-

enhancing plans

Number of responses

(out of total 809)

Average credit

requirement (Rs.)

Average Required

duration of credit

(months)

Leased in Agriculture 6 80,833 18

Winter Agriculture 2 50,000 18

Summer Agriculture 3 21,667 16

New plantation (mostly tea) 12 88,333 30

Pisciculture 20 1,28,500 30

Animal Husbandry 45 1,70,667 33

Agro Business 33 1,75,091 30

Tailoring & Handicraft related

business 6 1,11,667 28

Other Non Agro Business 44 1,72,955 34

Total 171


39

It is observed that only around 20 percent of survey households answered this question in a

concrete way. The diversification plans cover agricultural ventures as well. Some of the

respondents who are deprived of irrigation water for monsoon and summer cultivation

wanted to begin that activity. Some landless farm labourers wanted to lease-in land and

wanted to carry out their own agriculture. Some respondents wanted to diversify into fishing

and animal husbandry in a more commercial way. And of course some of them wanted to get

into non-farm business activities.

It is interesting to note that a significant number of them want to diversify into fisheries and

animal husbandry. The table reveals that there is ample scope to pump in new credit through

schemes specialized for these activities. Table-30 also shows that these credits need to have a

larger size than usual agricultural credit and a longer repayment period.

5. Discussions on study findings The tables and figures presented in the previous section indicate that through proper

mechanism of delivery of agricultural credits in required quantity, coupled with appropriate

irrigation facilities, „doubling of agricultural income‟ is technically possible within a short

time period. However, putting in place the required infrastructure and making institutional

changes are the main challenges that need to be undertaken by the policy authority.

In this regard, this study comes up with a set of policy suggestions that are spelt out in the

next section. This section provides some additional points to justify those suggestions. The

points discussed in this section are results of:

Detailed Focus Group Discussions with the Assistant Directors of Agriculture

(ADAs) of all the twelve sample Blocks and the Krishi Prayukti Sahayaks (KPSs) of

his/her office

Observations from field by the Principal Investigator and the surveyors (research

students).

Discussions with village Key Informants (Progressive Farmers‟ as identified by ADA

office), office bearers of Farmers‟ Clubs, and locally influential and/or renowned

persons with whom the enumerators talked at length during the field survey.

Comments and opinions provided by the respondent sample households outside the

set questions in the questionnaire.

Lastly and most importantly, the information collected through different modules of

the structured questionnaire

The major problems in the state that can be identified from the field level discussions and

collected information can be categorized broadly as –

Problems with the official delivery system of Assistance Schemes

Problems with irrigation

Problems with rural credit

40

5.1 Problems with the delivery system of farmers’ assistance schemes

As discussed earlier, the block ADA offices were found to be operating under manpower

shortages. It is resulting in difficulty for the officials in reaching out to the farmers with

various assistance schemes being sponsored by the central and state government. All the

ADAs in the sample Blocks turned out to be very sincere and motivated to their work. But an

ADA personally cannot reach out to all farmers. The KPS is supposed to be the single liaison

point between the government and the farmer. As shown previously (Table-18), the state is

facing a shortage of KPS in all blocks. As a result, the ADAs could do nothing but rely on

some individuals from various villages in his block and farmers‟ associations (if any) to

execute their duties.

For example, if some training camps are to be arranged, or some agricultural inputs (like

seeds) are to be distributed within a targeted timeline, the ADA office calls on some village

individuals to arrange that. These individuals generally happen to be more dynamic,

educated, clever and enterprising landholders in the block. It is no surprise that they often

hold some political clout in their villages which is strengthened by their proximity and access

to the ADA office. As a result, the final distribution of government assistance might not be

reaching to the people who need them most.

The study found all the ADAs in 12 sample Blocks very sincere and they often tried to reach

out to maximum number of farmers by asking them to organize themselves in Farmers‟ Clubs

(FCs). Such FCs are then used as a vehicle for the respective ADAs who often patronize them

by channelizing funds for various agricultural training programmes and other government

assistance to farmers. But the study finds that such FCs are usually very large in size and is

effectively controlled by a handful of persons. Most of the other members are naive enough

and has no say in the day to day functioning of the club. Successful distribution of various

government assistance among the club members need active and homogenous membership

profile – which such clubs lack in most cases.

The KPSs were also found to be shouldering large workload as many such posts are lying

vacant in ADA office. The sample respondents in most cases informed that there was no visit

by government officers or KPSs in their village for quite some time. So, the study finds that

the lack of office personnel in the ADA office at Block level is giving rise to unequal

distribution of government assistance which is mostly being cornered by a handful of

educated and dynamic farmers in villages.

This situation was found to be comparable across all agro-climatic zones in West Bengal. It is

an administrative problem rather than a local resource related problem. So, a policy

recommendation on this point has to be state specific and not zone specific.

5.2 Problems with irrigation infrastructure

Among the agro-climatic zones, the intensity of the problem of irrigation is unequal. While

Lateritic and Coastal Saline zones have a more severe deficiency in irrigation water, the Terai

Alluvial zone is most fortunate in water availability for the numerous small and medium

water channels flowing across it in the Himalayan foothills. But then also, there are pockets

of irrigation deficit areas and blocks. If we look at the block level and village level data, the

problem of irrigation is reported to be a problem in parts of every block, if not in every

village, across all agro-climatic zones.

41

Providing irrigation facility to farmers obviously stands out to be a meaningful policy handle

to enhance farm income. As shown in the study findings previously, presence of irrigation

alone can largely increase the return from agricultural land, especially in Terai Alluvial and

Lateritic zones (Table-26). This is also supported by the cropping intensity indices of

irrigated and non-irrigated farmlands (Table-13).

That the farmers themselves expressed the need to have better irrigation for their betterment

is amply demonstrated by Table-29. In connection to credit need, their overwhelming

response was to get technical (knowledge) help from the government to avail credit. But in

connection to irrigation, their response was to ask for government initiative to provide them

with more irrigation water.

Many of the respondents wanted the government to set up shallow/submersible units to lift

groundwater for their crops. While this can improve the cropping intensity in the short run, it

would have negative ecological implication for sustaining the local water table in the long run

due to large scale ground water lifting.

A positive aspect of this survey is that the farmers are aware of this ecological peril of ground

water lifting. Table-29 shows that more number of respondents want the government

intervention in irrigation in the form of check dams/pond/canal extension, compared to those

who wanted the service of shallow/submersible. There are already incentive schemes

launched by the state government for rain-water harvesting. The MNREGA work is also

creating and excavating irrigation ponds. Larger fund allocation for these schemes is

warranted for farm-income enhancement. These schemes are more in need for Coastal saline

and Lateritic zones.

The study found one good example in this respect in the Lateritic zone of Bankura district

where a couple of IWMP projects were supported by NABARD. At least one of these

projects had helped in income generation of a large number of villagers with an able local

leadership. Such models of integrated watershed development need to be scaled up.

5.3 Problems with rural credit

The other problem that emerged prominently across all agro-climatic zones is the lack of

availability of institutional credit in required quantity and for required duration. In spite of

lots of inroads made by various government agencies over years, the rural financial market

still now have a significant presence of local money-lenders (mahajans) and other non-

institutional credit sources as is described in Table-21. This happens in spite of the

significantly higher interest rate charged by them.

The most significant vehicle to increase farmers‟ income is obviously to supply them with

their required amount of credit. This is amply demonstrated in Table-26, which shows that

availability of credit can increase the farm income significantly across all agro-climatic

zones. The foremost reason for farmers not being able to access institutional credit is because

of the problem of mortgages. Theoretically, farmers can get loans through Kishan Credit

Cards without mortgages. But Table-19 also shows that only a small number of farmers

actually possess KCC and only a subset of them could avail credit through it. The reason for

not having KCC largely coincides with farmers being unable to access institutional loans. For

42

most of the farmers, there is dispute over their title of the land that they cultivate. This might

partly be a specific problem in West Bengal with its land reform measures in the past. But

also fragmentation of landholding through generations has been carried out on mutual

understanding among the family members in rural Bengal without the corresponding official

documentation. KCC can be obtained without landholding through the mediation of farmers‟

co-operatives (Samabay Samiti). But the respondents often pointed out that they felt banks

are unwilling to provide any help for seekers of credit who have got the KCC through

Samabay Samiti.

Table-23 shows that average credit size availed from SHGs, compared to that from the

commercial Banks, is significantly less. The credit that can be obtained from SHGs and can

be put into agricultural use is often too small compared to the requirement. Such SHG loans

cannot fulfil the credit requirement of rural sector to enhance farmers‟ income up to their

potential. SHG loan can have marginal impact on the HH earning, that too through the

womenfolk of the households.

One recurrent note from discussions was that the farmers‟ need credit for longer duration. A

6-12 month credit repayment obligation often pushes the farmers to distress selling. For

example, many of the potato farmers responded that they could have obtained good prices if

they could afford to keep their harvest in store for some time. They were forced to sell at

meagre price immediately after harvesting as they had to repay the loan in time. These field

level experiences converge to the fact that the system of providing rural credit needs some

administrative changes.

One successful and innovative example has been found (mostly prevalent in the North

Bengal) by the system put up by one recently incorporated commercial bank (Bandhan bank).

Its system might not look very ethical but this survey had found that it is working very

efficiently. The main reason for this bank‟s rural success story is that it is providing credit

without any mortgage. This is a huge attraction for the rural folk as the mortgaging is a huge

issue for them. The Bandhan Bank scheme is actually appropriating a high interest from the

debtors who are still flocking to the bank because of its procedural simplicity.

The bank is reaching out to the farmers by engaging local village persons as commission-

agents who get all the formalities done on the farmers‟ part at their doorstep. The mortgage

issue is bypassed relying on these agents‟ prudence and local leverage. An agent would not

arrange credit facility for a villager who has larger chance of defaulting because that will

jeopardize his own flow of commission-income. Also, he will use his personal influence to

see that his clients are paying back their dues to bank on time. On the farmers‟ part, the

timely repayment to the bank is a priority as he can obtain, in his next credit application,

larger amount more easily and quickly depending on his own repayment record. The bank is

recovering this additional cost of reaching out and risk of non-insured loans by charging an

interest rate quite cleverly that is much higher than commercial bank‟s usual lending rate.

Going by the field information, these agents of Bandhan Bank is apparently asking for an

annual interest rate of 12 percent on unsecured loans repayable in 12 months. The interest is

being calculated to the full loan amount and for one year. The total repayable (at the end of

the year) amount, thus calculated, is then divided into 52 Equal Weekly Instalments (EWI)

and the debtor has to start paying these EWIs from the very next week after availing the loan.

So, the interest is being paid on the whole of the principal amount while the principal is

43

reducing weekly. The real rate of interest charged by this scheme, therefore, is much higher

than 12 percent.

However, this scheme, due to easy access, lack of procedural hassles and low one-time

repayments instalments (52 EWIs) is found to be very attractive to the farmers. Taking cue

from this operation, new small scale microfinance companies have cropped up in North

Bengal, with anonymous sponsors and without their known office addresses. They are

providing funds to the farmers under similar schemes through local agents. For the farmers, it

turned out to be a better option compared to private money lenders who charge explicit and

high rate of interest and formal institutions (other commercial banks) which tend to deny loan

applications without mortgages.

5.4 The role of ‘progressive farmers’ and demonstration effect As already indicated by previous discussions, there is a significant deficiency in awareness

building among the rural households regarding their entitlements for various assistance

programmes offered by central and state governments. A natural corollary would be to find

ways to reduce this information gap and helping the lowly literate farmers so that they can tap

these provisions and increase their earning flow. However, this type of policy suggestion

ignores one crucial aspect of farming and rural livelihood – that is the role of

„entrepreneurship‟ in rural households. It is one big aspect that often makes a lot of difference

in a household‟s economic status. Every rural household, which is not enjoying a permanent

salaried employment, makes some sort of choice in the „risk-return‟ space in deciding its

livelihood path. It is the lack of clear idea of „returns‟ against various types of risks in

agriculture or other non-farm activities that holds back rural households in venturing into new

activities, even if they are aware about various assistance programmes.

It was found from the field survey at different locations that the „demonstration effect‟ of

successful entrepreneurship in the neighbourhood, with or without availing government

assistance, usually makes a large impact in the psyche of neighbouring households regarding

what they want to do to enhance their income. Advices and counselling by government

officials and/or other agencies on the ideal cropping pattern, fertiliser use or introduction of

new technology might go in vein unless there are some practical field demonstration of

enhanced benefit which is actually shown to be reaped by some fellow villager. Here comes

the role of entrepreneurship, which is usually demonstrated by some „first movers‟ among the

villagers who are generally identified as „progressive farmers‟. It cannot be predicted

beforehand who will make the move. But once one or more such persons emerge from within

a village, they usually catch the attention of the concerned local officials (ADAs/KPSs).

These progressive farmers generally get the benefit of more information flow about the

assistance programmes and new technology that might be suitable for them. The awareness of

such programmes is then transmitted to the other fellow villagers, who are already convinced

about the programmes‟ potential by such demonstration. The field experiences suggest that

existence of few such progressive farmers in a village usually sets positivity and dynamism

among the neighbouring other households regarding better choice of livelihood using

different government assistance programmes.

In many cases, new technology and a successful break from the traditional cropping pattern

has been the result of „demonstration projects‟ initiated by dedicated agencies like the Krishi

Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and/or NGOs, and has been carried out on own plots by such

progressive farmers. The study found that building a larger pool of progressive farmers is an

44

effective way of propagating new technology and cropping pattern among rural households

and spreading awareness about various income enhancement possibilities. The study also

found that KVKs are crucial district level institutions that bring out hidden entrepreneurs in

farming activities with their comprehensive package of inputs and consultancy. The study, in

one of its major recommendations, calls for further spreading out of KVK demonstration

projects at Block level. In every agro-climatic zone, there are such progressive farmers who

could be identified by the concerned KPS/ADAs. The following specific cases, one each

from the four agro-climatic zones, are examples of progressive farmers who could effectively

utilize various options and assistances to enhance their own income considerably and creating

dynamism among the fellow villagers.

(i) Zone: Gangetic Alluvial

Mr. Mantaj Ali Seikh of Dafarpur village under the Kalna-II block of Burdwan district was

identified as a prominent case of successful entrepreneurship in farm sector by the local

agricultural officials. A detailed interview with him revealed the following points.

Mr. Ali had recently switched to cultivation of a high-value rice variety (locally called

Gobindabhog) instead of cultivating the otherwise common variety (Swarna). He

made use of the assistance provided under PKVY project and carried out his farming

organically. .

Mr. Ali diversified into horticulture on a significant scale. Although Kalna-II block is

a belt for paddy and jute, he has started cultivating many fruits like Mango, Jackfruit,

Papaya, Guava, Dragon fruit etc. Such diversification proved to be commercially very

successful and added to his income significantly for last two years.

This success had attracted fellow villagers and Mr. Ali went on to set up a Farmers‟

Club few years ago under the accreditation of NABARD, which has been

continuously encouraging the farmers for income enhancement through promoting

agriculture, horticulture and allied activities. This club helped its members in

obtaining KCC and has been organizing various agricultural training programmes

with the help of local ADA office throughout the year.

Recently, by the members‟ expressed interest in horticulture following the successful

demonstration by Mr. Ali, NABARD has sanctioned a Green House project to this

club to produce vegetables like onion, cauliflower, coriander leaf in off season.

Mr. Ali also got Krishak Ratna award in 2013 and Krishi Ratna award in 2015 by the

government of West Bengal.

(ii) Zone: Lateritic

Mr. Bikash Dhak of Dalpur village under the Chhatna block of Bankura district was

identified as a progressive farmer through survey experiences and was also by the local ADA.

45

Mr. Dhak almost alone has changed the cropping pattern of his village through

demonstration of successful entrepreneurship. He made the village a strong belt of

vegetable production.

Geographically Chhatna is a remote block of Bankura district nearer to the Susunia

Hills and falls under the Lateritic zone, where lack of irrigation and irregular rainfall

put severe constraints to cultivation throughout the year.

Till few years ago Dalpur was a village with only monsoon cultivation of paddy. But

Mr. Dhak was the first one to step out in that area who did experiment with onion

cultivation in monsoon season in 2014 under a demonstration package initiated by an

agricultural university. He got huge success.

After that success story, many other local farmers replicated his model of monsoon

onion cultivation and could increase their income significantly.

Mr. Dhak is also a pioneer of organic farming by using different bio fertilizers and

training to the farmers of that region.

He has developed a regular marketing connection with „Sufal Bangla‟ . It is a venture

by the agricultural marketing department of the government of West Bengal that

establish a direct interface between producer and consumer bypassing all the

intermediaries.

(iii) Zone: Coastal Saline

Mr. Tapas Sardar of Daudpur Village of Mathurapur-II block, under the district of South-

24 Parganas, was identified as a progressive farmer by the local ADA. A detailed interview

with him revealed that

Mr. Sardar is a leading person of that village who has been encouraging the villagers

about the possibility of income enhancement through agricultural-allied activities.

Mr. Sardar had adapted the “Sundarini Project” initiated by the government of West

Bengal for development of dairy sector. He encourages local households in milk

production which he helps to be procured by the government-run dairy farm providing

remunerative price for milk. This adds to significant cash income of the local

households and is fast increasing their interest to expand the animal husbandry sector

there.

Also, he took a great initiative by helping local women in setting up an SHG which is

successfully making commercially viable handicrafts from the dried stems of a locally

available water plant „Sola‟ (Aeschynomene aspera).

He had also adopted organic farming under the PKVY scheme and helped to spread it

among fellow villagers

Mr. Sardar had been playing very crucial role for implementing various technical

interventions prescribed by KVK of South 24 Parganas (at Nimpith).

46

(iv) Zone: Terai Alluvial

Mr. Surendra Biswas of Yashodanga village of Alipurduar-II Block was identified as a

progressive farmer through survey experiences.

Mr. Biswas is an enlisted farmer under PKVY scheme and has been organically

farming various local (folk) rice varieties like Dudheswar, Gobindabhog, Kalabhat,

Keralasundari etc. for last three years.

He is also attached to various agricultural activities of Terai Reasearch Centre and

North Bengal Agricultural University from where he has got consultancy and seed

support for various folk rice varieties.

Last year he had got assistance for vermin-culture from PKVY scheme which helped

him to increase the yield of his rice output significantly.

He is also a leading farmer of marigold cultivation in that region.

Apart from that he has a flower nursery which is providing him approximately Rs.

1,50,000 as annual net return. He has also got Krishak Ratna award for his

spontaneous effort to adopt alternative agricultural practices.

His success provided a positive demonstration effect and other households in the

village are gradually shifting to his model of crop-mix and organic farming using

various assistance programmes like PKVY.

5.5 Scenario building at farm level

This study also attempts to come up with empirical estimates of effects of certain types of

interventions on household income on the basis of survey data. The effects are supposed to

vary across agro-climatic zones, and hence are separately estimated for each zone.

It is important to note that this attempt to build a „scenario of enhanced income‟ has been

done on the basis of a cross-section data obtained through a one-shot survey. Naturally, it was

carried out through a comparative approach across subgroups of survey sample with respect

to differentiated interventions. It is not based on „observed dynamics‟ of household income

through various interventions that could have been possible only through a time series data.

Also, household level specificities and endowments influence income dynamics of different

households differently. Some of these household level factors could have been identified

through a „panel dataset‟, where same set of households are observed through several time

points. This was also not possible with the present study. So, the attempt has been made to

find out the income or earning effect of an „average household‟ under different types of

interventions. For meaningful policy prescription to agencies like NABARD, the

interventions were confined to two broad types - credit availability and provision of

irrigation. Other factors that also have influence on rural household income (proximity to

urban centres, good road connectivity and electricity) were kept out of analysis as the policy

prescriptions on those interventions might be very generic and not feasible in the short run.

47

These two types of interventions can be made by agencies like NABARD through its grass

root level operations. Many assistance programmes of NABARD are directed towards

creating micro-irrigation facilities through projects like IWMP. While there are costs incurred

on this account, the estimates of financial returns are unknown, since such interventions are

of the nature of social investments. Success of credit deployments, on the other hand, might

be measured in terms of timely repayments by the borrowers. But there also, the optimum

credit size required for a targeted increase in income is difficult to estimate. This is more so,

as the deployment of credit takes different ways depending on the preferences, skills and

supplementary endowments of the borrower. With a cross-section data, what can be

scientifically estimated is the „average effect of credit on income‟ by splitting the sample into

subgroups with respect to their credit intake.

In this section, attempt has been made to estimate the effect of irrigation and credit on farm

income and effect of credit on non-farm business activities and livestock earning. In each of

the cases, the methodology is to split the sample into subgroups depending on certain criteria

and then observing the difference in their averages.

To estimate the effect of credit and irrigation on farm income, a subset of sample households

were considered that has agricultural landholding of more than 0.5 hectare. This was done

after in depth analysis and cross tabulation with the data which revealed that the households

with very small landholding are showing maximum variation in their „per hectare annual

farm income‟. This is plausible since for small holders, difference in their annual income

caused by differences in their human capital and proximity to markets and/or other specific

household level factors, get multiplied many fold when normalized by a large multiplicative

factor to obtain „per hectare income‟. It blurs the effect of interventions on farm income. The

bigger landholding households are more homogeneous in terms of their farm income and

provide a more dependable basis for inter-group comparisons.

To determine the effect of irrigation and credit on farm income, firstly landholding

households (more than 0.5 hectare) in each agro climatic zone were identified. Then the three

top performers in terms of „annual farm income from one hectare land‟ were separated out

from each zone – as they are considered leaders or models defining the frontier of farm

income that can be achieved with the available technology within that zone. The rest of the

households were divided into two parts – „have‟s and „have-not‟s – in terms of irrigation and

credit.

In this way, the „effect‟ of irrigation on annual farm income from one hectare of land has

been estimated for each agro-climatic zone, which is shown in Table-31. It is to be noted that

the income figures estimated in the table would not exactly match to the figures reported

previously in Table-15 (annual average household income from all sources across agro-

climatic zones). In some cases, the annual farm income reported in Table-31 is more than

annual income from all sources (Table-15) reported for the same zone. This is because the

former table included all households in that zone including the landless, while Table-31

involves only the households with considerable agricultural landholding.

48

Table 31: Effect of irrigation and potential farm income from one hectare farm land

Agro-Climatic

Zones

Average Household Income from Farming activities from 1 Ha land

Households

without any

irrigation for

agriculture

(Rs.)

Households

with irrigation

sources for

agriculture

(Rs.)

% increase in

annual income

accounted by

irrigation

Potential

Income frontier

(average of

three leaders

with credit &

irrigation)

(Rs.)

Gangetic Alluvial 38,418 50,389 31 2,11,007

Terai Alluvial 44,617 86,610 94 3,85,128

Lateritic 22,646 48,300 113 75,046

Coastal Saline 62,916 77,491 23 1,22,501


The above table shows that there is significant scope for increase in farm income through

developing sustainable micro-irrigation projects (preferably rain-water harvesting) in

Lateritic zone and even in Terai-Alluvial zone. However, this scope is limited in Gangetic-

alluvial and Coastal saline zones. The Table also provides an estimate of the limits to which

farm income can be increased in each agro-climatic zone. The last column in Table-31 shows

the possibilities of farm-income enhancements as an average of three top-performing

agricultural households in the respective zones. It shows existence of farming examples in

Gangetic-alluvial and Terai-alluvial zones which earn approximately 4 times more than their

average counterparts (comparison between column 3 and column 5 in Table-31). But for

Lateritic and Coastal saline zones, such frontiers are less than 2 times more. Such differences

arise out of the differences in household characteristics and farmers‟ entrepreneurial skills,

which might not be generated through policy interventions. We can conclude that in each of

these zones, „doubling‟ of farm-income on an average is indeed achievable, but that requires

enough skill development in farming enterprises.

Turning to the effect of credit on farm-income, a similar exercise has been carried out which

is provided in Table-32. The comparability between estimates in Table-32 and that provided

previously (Table-15) is qualified by the similar caution notified in the context of Table-31

before. Table-32, additionally, could provide some estimates on the „marginal effect of

credit‟ on farm income across agro-climatic zones. This was possible as the amounts of credit

deployed by the household in agriculture could be elicited in figures from the respondents

(for irrigation, the sources were elicited while the quantity of irrigation water put to the field

was hard to estimate). In Table-32, estimates of marginal contribution of credit (additional

credit of Rs. 1,00,000) on farm income could be calculated. Also, the required credit for

„doubling of farm income‟ through additional credit deployment was estimated separately for

each agro-climatic zone.

49

Table 32: Effect of credit and its requirement for 'doubling of farm income’

Agro-Climatic

Zones

Average Household Income from Farming activities from 1 Ha land

Households

without any

credit

availed for

agriculture

(Rs.)

Households

with some

credit

availed for

agriculture

(Rs.)

% increase

in annual

income

accounted

by credit

availability

Average

size of

credit

deployed

per

hectare

(Rs.)

Average

credit

requirement

for

„Doubling of

farm income‟

(Rs.)

%

increase

in farm

income

from

additional

credit of

Rs. 1

Lakh

Gangetic Alluvial 41,530 50,605 22 1,63,890 7,49,972 13

Terrai Alluvial 45,998 91,292 98 2,12,851 2,16,166 46

Lateritic 27,714 40,289 45 67,923 1,49,704 67

Coastal Saline 49,199 87,632 78 2,98,807 3,82,513 26


The table shows that provision of additional credit could be more productive in Terai-alluvial

and Coastal saline zones, and less in Lateritic zone. Since the Lateritic zone shows the lowest

farm income in absence of credit, marginal contribution of Rs. 1 lakh credit happens to be

highest in this zone. Going by the same arithmetic, this zone requires the lowest additional

credit to „double‟ its existing average farm income.

Both the tables provided above shows that enhancing farm income through promotion of

micro-irrigation facilities and deployment of more agricultural credit is most productive (in

terms of financial return) in the Lateritic zones of West Bengal.

Rural non-farm sector is largely linked with the diversity in surrounding agriculture. If a rural

area is vibrant in agricultural activities, it opens up the scope for various types of business

related to farm inputs and farm produce. Also, a vibrant agriculture allows the rural people to

buy more industrial goods for consumption purposes. So, it is no wonder that the Terai-

alluvial zones, with the presence of large scale vegetable cultivation and small tea

plantations, shows the highest level of average non-farm business income. This is shown in

Table-33, where the estimates had been arrived at considering that subset of respondent

households which reported to have undertaken Non-Farm business activities in the reporting

year (2017). It is to be noted that Non-Farm business activities are very diverse in nature

(detailed in Appendix-3) and the effect of individual entrepreneurial skills on annual income

(profit) is more pronounced for such activities. Still, averaging of profits from such activities

over all practicing households within a zone might allow us to draw some inference regarding

the effect of credit deployment in such activities. Barring the „business leaders‟ (top three

earning performers for each zones, indicated by last column of Table-33), the average annual

earnings from Non-Farm activities from all zones suggest that most of these activities are

quite petty in nature (column 2 and 3 in Table-33).

50

Table 33: Enhancement of Non-Farm business activities through credit deployment

Agro-

Climatic

Zones

Average Household Income from non-farm activities

Households

without any

credit

availed for

Non-farm

business

(Rs.)

Households

with some

credit

availed for

Non-farm

business

(Rs.)

% increase

in annual

Non-farm

income

accounted

by credit

availability

Average

size of

credit

deployed

per

business

activity

(Rs.)

Average credit

requirement

for „Doubling

of Non-farm

income‟ (Rs.)

% increase

in Non-

farm

income

from

additional

credit of

Rs. 1 Lakh

Potential

Income

frontier

(average of

three leaders

in Non-farm

business)

(Rs.)

Gangetic

Alluvial 35,275 40,974 16 87,120 5,39,211 19 1,28,000

Terai

Alluvial 52,073 81,702 57 67,131 1,17,981 85 2,56,250

Lateritic 32,473 46,300 43 75,000 1,76,144 57 1,75,333

Coastal

Saline 44,120 71,086 61 1,02,000 1,66,885 60 3,66,667


The above table shows that credit used in Non-Farm business earning is comparatively more

useful for Coastal saline zone and Terai-alluvial zone. The coastal saline zone also reported

the highest average level of credit deployment in such activities. It might have been caused

by the prevalence of coastal fishing and fish-related trading activities in that zone. The table

also shows that optimum entrepreneurial interventions leaves the scope for increasing such

incomes more than 3 times (comparison between column 3 and 8) in first three zones while

that is more than 5 times in Coastal saline zone. It is interesting to note that, comparing

Table-32 and Table-33, one might conclude that „Doubling on Non-Farm income‟ can be

achieved with lesser credit deployment compared to that for „Doubling of Farm income‟,

except in the case of Lateritic zone.

Similar exercise has also been carried out for livestock-earning by sample households in

different agro-climatic zones. Estimates in Table-34 had been arrived at by considering

households in each agro-climatic zone who had reported some livestock earning during the

reporting year (2017). The top three performers on this count had been separated out within

each agro-climatic zone, and their average earning is taken as the frontier of such earning

activities corresponding to each zone. The rest are divided into two groups – those who had

deployed some credit in livestock rearing and those who did not.

It is seen that the Lateritic and Terai-alluvial zones are good performers in livestock-based

earning, which is also previously indicated by their relatively higher average livestock

holding (Table-10 before). It shows credit deployed in this sector is more rewarding in

Lateritic and Terai-alluvial zones, while its effect is least in Coastal saline zones. The leaders

in this sector earns more than 4-5 times compared to an average household except for Coastal

saline zone (comparison between column 3 and 8 in Table-34). Moreover, an additional

credit earmarked for deployment on livestock-rearing can make the earning from this sector

more than „double‟ except for the Coastal saline zone. However, such doubling should be

treated with caution as the base is low (column 3 in Table-3). It cannot be said that livestock

51

rearing is a better option than increasing farm income or non-farm business with a given

credit deployment, as the absolute returns from credit might be more if deployed in farming

or non-farm business.

Table 34: Effect of credit on income from livestock-based activities

Agro-Climatic

Zones

Average Household Income from livestock based activities

Households

without

any credit

availed for

Livestock

earning

(Rs.)

Households

with some

credit

availed for

Livestock

earning

(Rs.)

% increase

in annual

Livestock

earning

accounted

by credit

availability

Average

size of

credit

deployed

per

household

(Rs.)

Average

credit

requirement

for

„Doubling

of

Livestock

earning‟

(Rs.)

% increase

in

Livestock

earning

from

additional

credit of

Rs. 1 Lakh

Potential

Income

frontier

(average of

three

leaders in

Livestock

earning)

(Rs.)

Gangetic

Alluvial 4,608 7,713 67 56,798 84,305 119 29,233

Terai Alluvial 7,421 13,984 88 82,536 93,334 107 74,467

Lateritic 7,309 13,973 91 79,500 87,193 115 56,000

Coastal Saline 3,707 5,188 40 86,857 2,17,375 46 11,667


In summary, this section provides some scenario for each agro-climatic zone in West Bengal

regarding the effects of interventions like increase in credit availability and developing

sustainable micro-irrigation projects on farm income, earning from Non-Farm sector and

livestock-based activities. It was found that the effect of micro-irrigation is relatively high in

Lateritic zone. Effect of credit for agriculture can result in the highest percentage change in

return in Terai-alluvial zone. Non-farm business earning can be promoted most effectively in

Coastal saline zone and Livestock rearing activities can be promoted most effectively in the

Lateritic zone.

5.6 The Issue of Farmers’ Clubs

Farmers‟ Clubs (FCs) are often seen as a vehicle for equitable distribution of various

government assistance programmes to the farmers. Such associations also enable the farmers

in a village to organize themselves in a unified body to acquire more bargaining power as

buyers of agricultural inputs and sellers of farm outputs against exploitation by middlemen.

FCs are formal associations which are entitled to get various assistances from agencies like

NABARD under various collective schemes like PKVY. When such a club gets recognition

and assistance from NABARD, they call themselves „NABARD-accredited‟ to point out their

distinguished standing. The study came across four FCs within the sample villages and

collected some basic information on their functioning and activities. Two of them are found

to have obtained some financial assistance from NABARD and the rest two have not.

52

What transpired from the discussions with the office-bearers of these clubs is summarized in

Appendix-4. It was found that the two FCs without NABARD accreditation are clubs that

were promoted by one or more local progressive farmers out of their own realization of

tangible benefits that they could gain by organizing themselves into a unified body. They

roped in some like-minded local farmers to promote the club and they have a specific line of

productive activity where most of the members actively participate and obtain regular

income. These clubs are smaller in their membership strength (15-40 members).

The other two FCs were found to be NABARD accredited. They were effectively formed

with encouragement from the local office of Assistant Director of Agriculture (ADA) and got

their NABARD accreditation through his/her patronage. The main activities of these FCs are

to organize training programmes. It can be sensed that in doing so, they act as organizing

agencies for the local ADA, who finds it easier for executing his local liaison duties and

distribution of various agricultural inputs in a more democratic way through such FCs. The

„inclusiveness‟ of such FCs is also manifested in their larger membership strength (75-100 or

more). Though much bigger in size, these FCs couldn‟t clearly tell us how its members are

getting additional regular income through the membership. The regularity of meetings and

the average percentage of members‟ attendance in those meetings are also lower.

It seems that when there is a specific income augmenting programme that requires co-

operation and consultation of a set of farmers among themselves, a smaller group size is more

effective. A group or club with close to 100 members from the same village are bound to be

heterogeneous in the members‟ individual priorities and aspirations. Group borrowing and

repayment of credit through peer-pressure might fail to work for such a large group. Rather,

proven examples of successful women‟s Self Help Groups (SHGs) in India and in Asia had

shown that the groups need to be more homogeneous in their socio-economic background

and smaller in size.

This study, in its previous sections, had amply demonstrated the lacunae in the institutional

delivery system of state-sponsored farmers‟ assistance programmes. The study feels that

farmers‟ stand to gain much in negotiating with the authorities for credit and insurance when

they are formally united in groups. But the groups have to be constituted by members with

common goals and more or less homogeneous resource endowments. Most importantly, they

need to be smaller in size to be effective in handling joint liabilities as well as collective

assets (like shared agricultural implements provided by the authority). The study

recommends, in its next section, active promotion of smaller sized Farmers‟ Clubs the

operations of which should be in line with women SHGs.

5.7 Justification for possible policy interventions

On delivery of various types of assistance programmes to the farmers in an effective and

more equitable way, the study suggest the delivery system to be outsourced to the Non-

Government Organizations and even to specialized private agencies instead of channelizing

all such schemes to the already over-burdened ADAs. While ADA is the most knowledgeable

official entity and usually the most unbiased institution in assisting farmers, its manpower

resource falls largely short of the required staff strength that is needed to reach out to the

needy farmers adequately. Since staffing the ADA offices is a state matter involving finance

departments, it is understood that the offices cannot be made adequately staffed in the short

run. Involving NGOs and private agencies can be the best and least-cost alternative.

53

The engagement of NGOs or some professional agencies would be purely as a facilitator to

reduce the knowledge gap among the lowly educated farmers and to help them overcome

their reluctance to approach institutions like banks in fear of harassment. The agency/NGO

would be helping the poor and less-educated farmers with paper-works in availing various

central and state sponsored (NABARD financed) Assistance Schemes for rural income

enhancement and diversification (e.g., availing KCC, processing bank documents, helping in

soil testing report done, advising in cropping pattern, promoting model farms, availing

PKVY, PMFBY, PMSY etc). For doing these works professionally, monetary incentive has

to be provided to such agencies and local NGOs should be given a priority. Monetary

incentives should be provided by apex bodies like NABARD which should be proportional to

the number of beneficiaries getting their assistance and/or as a percentage of the money

involved in these facilitated transactions.

On irrigation in rain fed areas, the study recommends scaling up successful projects

conceived under IWMP in rain fed (Lateritic) zone. The exact nature of such projects varies

across different locations depending on local topography and resources. However, there are

examples of success scattered everywhere. The offices of ADA in each Block and Krishi

Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in each district might be given the responsibility to identify the

successful models and provide the fund estimates for scaling them up within their respective

blocks/districts. In other areas, better irrigation can be facilitated primarily through rainwater

harvesting by excavation and renovation of ponds, maintenance and possible extension of

canals and erecting new check dams. The ADA of each block might be asked to develop

required projects and cost estimates. NABARD can help financing these projects under

various existing programmes.

The problem of better distribution of institutional credit needs some reorganization of the

existing institutional setting. The main bottleneck for farmers in availing loan is the absence

of required title documents for their landholding or other mortgaging assets as well as lack of

education and fear of paper-works. Farmers‟ Clubs in their present form might not be that

effective as they tend to be too big in size and hence inefficient in taking up joint

responsibility. The study recommends promoting small sized Farmers Groups (FG) exactly in

line with women SHGs and with similar motivation of bearing group-responsibility in

repaying agricultural credit. Such groups should be formed by similar set of people with

similar motivation. Ideally FGs should be constituted by 10-15 farmers within the same

landholding class, within same village and practicing similar cropping pattern. These FGs

should be recognized and registered as a body having their own bank accounts. After one-

year of existence and some internal fund mobilization, these groups should be financed and

refinanced exactly like SHGs, but with a larger funding and longer repayment periods that

matches farmers‟ requirements reasonably. Setting up such FGs can be facilitated by outside

agencies like NGOs / other professional agencies.

Apart from new provision and modifications in irrigation and credit front, the study finds that

farmers are most convinced to make changes in their own farming techniques only when

some enterprising fellow villager demonstrates the benefits by realizing more profit through

adaptation of such technologies. In the field surveys, the study frequently found scattered

examples of such enterprising farmers who actually changes the attitudes of his neighbours

and effectively spread awareness of new technologies. In many cases, such model farms did

come up with help and consultancy provided by the KVKs. In West Bengal, KVKs are there

at district level and are creating attractive examples of integrated farming through land

shaping, animal husbandry and pisciculture. Few „progressive‟ farmers are always there to

54

come forward to provide demonstration plots. Such examples created interest in the

neighbourhood, but failed to scale up because of lack of fund provisions. In light of the

population density in West Bengal with the prevalence of marginal and small holders, the

study finds that KVKs can be made more effective if they are present at the block level.

6. Conclusion and policy suggestions

In light of the discussions and observations made before, this study comes up with some

practical suggestions for enhancing rural income in West Bengal. The main takeaway point

revealed in this study is that there are plenty of provisions, sponsored by both central and

state government, for assisting farmers in their pursuit to enhance income. But the real

problem is to channelize the assistance schemes to the farmers‟ doorstep through appropriate

institutional arrangements. It is empirically revealed that the provisions are failing to reach

the intended beneficiaries due to information gaps, which are resulting from inefficient

delivery mechanisms and institutional arrangements.

The recommendations for increasing farmers‟ income in West Bengal, hence, are mostly

concentrating on building and reshaping of delivery institutions dealing with various farmers‟

assistance programmes. One good step towards this has already been taken by the West

Bengal government, in which payment for government procurement of rice is being directly

made to the farmers‟ bank accounts. The practice is supposed to cut into middlemen‟s

income, which was a menace in the traditional procurement process. However, this

mechanism was put into place only a couple of months ago and hence its benefits are yet to

be empirically estimated.

The specific recommendations for enhancing farmers‟ income in West Bengal are provided in

the following section in three sets. First set of recommendations is made for the state as a

whole, involving mainly institutional changes and suggesting collaboration among possible

partners. The second set of recommendations is also provided for the whole state,

highlighting the need for scaling up specific interventions and providing wider coverage to

existing assistance schemes. The third set involves specific recommendations made for

different agro-climatic zones that might be considered as cost-saving and income-enhancing

measures, as is identified as the priority interventions for the specified zones.

6.1 Recommendations for improving institutions for assistance delivery

Small and efficient Farmers‟ Groups (FG) are to be promoted similar to women‟s

Self-Help Groups in each Gram Panchayet area. Such FGs should be provided with

funds in larger quantity and with longer repayment period compared to women SHGs.

Such groups should ideally be formed by 10-15 farmers in the neighbourhood

belonging to the same landholding class. The FGs should be formally recognized and

institutionalized.

For effective delivery of the various ongoing assistance and farmers‟ welfare

schemes, experienced Non-Governmental Organizations and/or specialized

professional agencies are to be engaged purely as facilitators for helping the lowly

educated farmers in availing various schemes‟ benefits. Such engagements should be

on the basis of financial incentives to the facilitating agency.

55

Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) in each district need to be funded to set up their own

extension units in each block of the district and scale up their successful

demonstration projects and create a larger pool of local progressive farmers.

Assistance for income enhancement to rural households in West Bengal should be

specially designed for landless and small landholders. They are the overwhelming

majority in the state. Various current assistance schemes, which are not linked to

landholding size, are being appropriated by the larger landowning households due to

their local clout and proximity with the personnel in the delivering institutions.

6.2 Recommendations for improving various service provisions to farmers

For intensification of cropping and hence increasing return from farming, successful

rainwater harvesting models should be scaled up taking cue from IWMP projects from

rain fed areas. The office of the Assistant Director of Agriculture in each block might

be asked to provide the extent of such project possibilities and corresponding funding

requirement for his block in this regard.

Specialized soil testing laboratories needs to be set up adjacent to ADA offices in

each block either purely by engaging private agencies through financial incentives, or

through PPP model. Soil tests reports should be provided in a time-bound way and it

should be accompanied by expert opinion on the optimum cropping pattern and

fertilizer use for that soil.

Prime Ministers‟ Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) should have much wider coverage in

crops across different seasons in West Bengal compared to its present provisions.

West Bengal is characterised by extensive cultivation of vegetables, most of which

are presently not covered under PMFBY

6.3 Recommendations for increasing farm income in major agro-climatic

zones

The assistance schemes for livestock (free distribution of livestock and fodder) needs

to be more concentrated towards the Lateritic zone as the households in this zone have

a better ongoing practice in livestock maintenance and related activities.

Ongoing IWMP projects in rain fed Lateritic zone should be synchronized with

MGNREGA. The later should be used as a vehicle to create more rainwater

harvesting infrastructure like check-dams and dug-wells in Lateritic zones.

In Terai Alluvial zone, special long term credit schemes should be launched for small

holders who can convert parts of their cropland to small tea plantations. The credit is

needed for them towards land conversion cost and also for the gestation period for

new tea plantations which starts yielding financial returns after three years.

.

In light of much lesser average landholding size in Coastal Saline zone compared to

other zones, potential for enhancing rural household income is more from

56

development of inland fisheries than providing inputs to farming. Special credit

facilities should be provided in this zone for developing brackish water fish farms.

The amount of credit that can be availed through KCC is insufficient for such

enterprise.

In Gangetic Alluvial zone, more warehousing facilities should be made available for

potato and vegetables by enticing private investors with soft loans. Also, for potato

growers, a longer repayment period of credit is recommended as they often distress

sell their output at lower price for repayment of short term loans.

This study provides a set of important baseline estimates for average rural household income

and its composition across four major agro-climatic zones and also across different social

class and landholding size-classes for the state of West Bengal in 2017. The information in

this report can be used as a ready reference to compare changes and to evaluate intervention

programmes in this regard at any future point of time. The study sheds light on major

bottlenecks in different zones as well as for the state as a whole. It provides a definite set of

policy directions, substantiated by appropriate household level primary data, to enhance

farmers‟ income within a short period of time. The study finds that „Doubling farmers‟

income by 2022‟ is indeed possible provided appropriate institutional changes and provisions

are made quickly.

The results in this study, however, have to be interpreted with a word of caution. Due to the

limit imposed by time and resources, this study had to be carried out with approximately 200

households representing each agro-climatic zone. The large extent of socio-economic and

infrastructural variations within each zone had to be captured within a small sample with a

carefully designed multistage sampling scheme. This could only be achieved through a

purposive (but objective) selection of blocks and villages from each zone. Within a sample

village, households were selected by standard stratified random method. But the blocks and

villages were carefully chosen to capture high, medium and low ranks in terms of their

cropping pattern and irrigation infrastructure. Since the relative prevalence or weight of such

blocks and villages vary cross agro-climatic zones, it will be wrong to directly use the

reported estimates as population estimates. While it is perfectly sensible to use the results for

future comparison and identifying bottlenecks, it might not be wise to extrapolate these

results to find estimates for the whole of West Bengal. For that, a larger sample size for each

zone is advisable, which should be supplemented by required secondary information at block

and Gram Panchayet level. It remains another research agenda and open at this point.

References

Agricultural Census (2000-01 & 2010-11), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare,

Government of India, Available at http://agcensus.nic.in [Last accessed 02.01.2018]

Agricultural Statistics at a Glance (2016), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare,

Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Directorate of Economics and

Statistics. Government of India. Available at http://eands.dacnet.nic.in/PDF/Glance-2016.pdf

[Last accessed 24.03.2018]

http://agcensus.nic.in/

http://eands.dacnet.nic.in/PDF/Glance-2016.pdf

57

District Statistical Handbook(s) (2014): Department of Planning, Statistics and Programme

Monitoring; Government of West Bengal. Available at

http://www.wbpspm.gov.in/publications/District%20Statistical%20Handbook


Lanjouw P. & A. Shariff (2004): Rural Non-Farm Employment in India: Access, Incomes

and Poverty Impact, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 40, pp. 4429-4446

Mandal S., D. Burman, U.K. Mandal, T.D. Lama, B. Maji & P.C. Sharma (2017):

Challenges, Options and Strategies for Doubling Farmers‟ Income in West Bengal –

Reflections from Coastal Region, Agricultural Economics Research Review, Vol. 30, pp 89-

100

Meena P.C., R. Kumar, N. Sivaramane, S. Kumar, K. Srinivas, A. Dhandapani & E. Khan

(2017): Non-Farm Income as an Instrument for Doubling Farmers‟ Income: Evidences from

Longitudinal Household Survey, Agricultural Economics Research Review, Vol. 30, pp 127-

137

Nakajima M, K. Otsuka & T. Yamano (2017): Jobs off the Farm: Wealth, Human Capital,

and Social Group in Rural Eastern India, The Journal of Development Studies,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1283017 [Last accessed 02.01.2018]

NSSO (2014): Key Indicators of Situation of Agricultural Households in India, NSS 70th

Round (January-December 2013), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,

Govt. of India. Available at

http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/KI_70_33_19dec14.pdf


Singh S. (2018) : Doubling Farmers‟ Incomes Mechanisms and Challenges, Economic &

Political Weekly, Vol. LIII, No. 7, pp 15-19

State Agriculture Plan for West Bengal (prepared by NABCONS & Department of

Agriculture, Government of West Bengal) : Available at

http://rkvy.nic.in/static/SAP/WB/WB.PDF [Last accessed 24.03.2018]

West Bengal Development Report (2010) Planning Commission, Govt. of India;, Academic

Foundation, New Delhi. Available at

http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/sdr/sdr_wb1909.pdf [Last accessed

24.03.2018]

West Bengal State Action Plan on Climate Change (Govt. of West Bengal), Available at



Websites:

Department of Agriculture, Government of West Bengal:


http://www.wbpspm.gov.in/publications/District%20Statistical%20Handbook

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1283017

http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/KI_70_33_19dec14.pdf


http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/sdr/sdr_wb1909.pdf



58

APPENDIX-1: Location of the Sample districts in West Bengal [Indicated by red marks]

59

APPENDIX-2: Characteristics of sample villages

The specific characteristics of the selected sample villages, as was noted from the FGDs with

ADAs, are as follows:

For District BANKURA

Blo

ck

Village

Main features of the village

Pat

rasa

yar

Hamirpur

1.Three annual crops are cultivated.

2. Irrigation facility is moderate.

3. Road connectivity (with market) is very bad.

4. Women participation rate in income activities is very low.

Birsingha

1. Yearly one crop only.

2. Villagers are mainly depends on other non-farm income activities

3. Poor irrigation facility.

4. Poor transport and communication

Salkhara

1. Yearly two crops

2. very poor road connectivity

3. Moderate irrigation

On

da

Angadpur

1. Remote area (Very poor communication)

2. Mainly one crop produced yearly

3. Poor irrigation system

4. Little modernization in agriculture

5. More than 85 % people are engaged in milk-related production

6. Poor marketing facility

Dubrajpur-Ola

1. Large wholesale market

2. Highly diversified area in terms of crops and vegetables

3. Three times paddy and various vegetables being produced yearly

4. Good irrigation system and road connectivity with good transport

5. Linked with other city markets

Purusottampur

1. yearly three crops are produced

2. collective organized irrigation system

3. crop diversified area

4. Kangshabati Dairy project.

Manjuria

1. River water is only source of irrigation (no submersible)

2. Only one crop (monsoon Paddy) in a year

3. good road connectivity and moderate transport facility

Ch

hat

na

Dalpur

1. Poor irrigation

2. Good road connectivity.

3. Emergence of organic farming

Metyala

1.One annual crop

2.Poor irrigation

3. poor market

4.Moderate road connectivity

Karkari

1. One annual crop

2.Poor irrigation

3 Poor transport facility

4.Tribal population

60

For District BURDWAN

B

lock

Village


Au

sgra

m-I

Ausgram

1. Poor Irrigation.

2. Road connectivity is good.

3. Different social classes exist.

4. Proximity of rice mill, cold storage.

5. Three crops in a year

Beluti

1. Irrigation Problem. 2.

2. Recently, interventions increased Boro rice cultivation.

3. 50% of the farmers of this village are land less.

4. Pulse production is high due to less irrigational facilities in winter.

5. Road connectivity is good but lack of public transport services.

Gangarampur

(Galigram)

1. Different crops can be produced thrice in a year in 60% of the total land

2. Rate of education is high among the farmers

3. Some farmers have adapted zero tillage for reducing production cost

4. Some low lying land is susceptible to frequent flooding

Bhada

1. Irrigation is very poor

2. Road connectivity is poor.

3. Poor marketing channel

4. Significant Potato Cultivation

Kal

na-

II

Dafarpur

1. Irrigation is very good and efficient crop rotation.

2. A group of farmers started organic farming with the help of PKVY scheme

and a progressive farmers club is initiated with NABARD‟s certification.

3. Road connectivity is not too good and Storage problem.

4. Absence of proper marketing facilities for organic products.

5. Far from “Kishan mandi” and “krishak bazaar”.

6. Most of the farmers are holding soil health card and KCC.

Ramnagar

1. Irrigation & road connectivity are good

2.Lack of good marketing channel.

3. Using drum-seeder technology for sowing crops by govt assistance

4. Within the village a co-operative agricultural development society is

working for farmers‟ welfare, especially providing credit facilities.

Hatgacha

1. Irrigation is good and good crop rotation

2. Farmers are getting benefits of some agricultural schemes (ATMA, RKVY)

3. Strong presence of Jute and Onion cultivators.

4. Under ATMA scheme farmers are availing labour saving zero tillage

5. Presence of village co-operative agricultural development society

6. Proximity to urban centre

7. Lack of storage for onion & Lack of marketing channel

Sal

anp

ur

Barabhuin

1. Soil is infertile, basically lateritic.

2.Irrigation is very poor, Insufficient rainfall

3. Presence of Tribal population

4. Ongoing NABARD assisted programme by a local NGO

Achra

1. Soil is infertile, basically lateritic

2.Insufficient rainfall and poor Irrigation

3. Presence of horticulture project under the MGNREGA scheme.

4. IWMP project for watershed development

5. Road Connectivity is good, but lack of public transport

Jitpur

1. Soil is infertile, basically lateritic.

2. Insufficient rainfall and poor Irrigation

3. Under the NAMSA (National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture) scheme

pisciculture activities is developing.

61

For District JALPAIGURI (Including Newly Formed ALIPURDUAR)

B

lock

Village


Raj

gan

j

1 No. Takimari

1. Riverbed (Char) area beside Teesta river, no irrigation problem

2. Good vegetable belt

3. Relatively remote

4. Very few households has legal land entitlement

Pipripara-telipara-

jalapara-Purba

debithakurbari

1. Model village (all support schemes are being implemented more intensively

by the local agriculture authority)

2. Not remote

3. Irrigation facility not good

4. Presence of small tea growers

Bholapara-

Chariyapara

1. Near Bangladesh border


3. Irrigation problem exist

4. Heavy concentration of small tea growers

Badlagoch

1. Good transport facility

2. Irrigation facility bad

3. Presence of farmers‟ club

May

nag

uri

Paschim

Barogharia


2. Irrigation facility good (beside teesta river)

3. Vegetable belt

Madhabdanga-

Sarjubala

1. Good transport facility

2. Not near any river, ground water is accessed for irrigation

3. Presence of organic farming

Basilardanga

1. Beside small river, but water is not available throughout the year

2. Recurrent flood problem in monsoon

3. Transport facility is not good

A

lip

urd

uar

-II

Dakhin

Salsalbari-

Golabari

1. Presence of Farmers‟ club, ongoing PKVY project

2. Good road connectivity

3. Close to Alipurduar town, close to market

4. Irrigation facility is medium

Koyakhata

1. Canal side, good irrigation.

2. Transport facility bad

3. Vegetable belt

Jashodanga

1. River encircled, regular flooding

2. Crop variety is high

3. Poor transport facility

4. Existence of Farmers‟ club

62

For District SOUTH 24 PARAGANAS

B

lock

Village


Pat

har

pra

tim

a

Shridharnagar

1. located on the most remote island in Sundarban delta

2. Dotted with fisheries and a large fishing community

3. saline water ingression in agricultural land is a risk to agriculture

4. Single monsoon crop, no irrigation facility

Achintyanagar

1. On a island in Sundarban delta, with poor connectivity to mainland

2. Betel leaf cultivation is predominant

3. Fish farms are increasing by number

Dakshin Roypur

1. Not on an island (though part of delta area)

2. Road connectivity and transportation is good.

3. There is a strong presence of vegetable cultivators.

4. Irrigation facility is good, presence of shallow tubewells.

Mahendranagar

1. Not on an island (though part of delta area)

2. Road connectivity and transportation is poor.

3. Presence of fishing community and substantial non-farm income

4. Poor Irrigation facility

Mat

hu

rap

ur-

I

Daudpur-

Sekhpukuria

1. Presence of mixed occupation and active SHG groups

2. Irrigation is good.

3. Dairy based activities under the Sundarini project by the State Govt.

4. Road connectivity and transportation is moderate

Narayanipur

1. Mostly agriculture-based, two annual crops

2. Presence of winter vegetables and mustard

3. Remote location and far from the large market.

Baraghoradal

1. Road connectivity is good.

2. Presence of local wholesale market.

3. Irrigation is good.

4. Presence of different Govt. projects (RKVY, PKVY, NFSM, ATMA etc.)

.

Dia

mo

nd

Har

bo

ur

- I

Dakshin Kuleswar

1. Existence of a strong group of vegetable cultivators.

2. Good soil fertility

3. Good road connectivity and proximity to market (Krishak Bazar)

Dakkhin Shaharda

1. Road connectivity is poor

2. Remote and far from nearest town

3 .Vegetable production is good.

Jangalpara

1. Two crops, near Hoogly river

2. Existence of pisciculture.

3. Near to town and the local market

63

APPENDIX-3: Agro-climatic zone wise Frequency distribution of Non-

Farm earning activities of the sample respondents

A3.1 Activity Category: Agriculture-Allied and Natural Resource Based

Brief Description of Activity Agro Climatic Zones

Gangetic Alluvial

Terai Alluvial Lateritic

Coastal Saline

Farm Labour Jobs 133 54 76 44

Tea Garden Labour Jobs 15

Renting out Agricultural Equipments (Tractor/Power Tiller/Pump/Plough etc.) 4 2 2 5

Trading in Rice 1

Trading in Fish 1 3

Trading in Bamboo 1

Trading in Fertilizers 1 1

Trading in Vegetables 3 5 8 8

Making of baskets from bamboo 3

Trading in Betel Nut 9

Trading in Haystacks 1

Trading in Fuel wood 2

Trading in Fruits/Mushroom 1 4 3

Trading in Sal Leaf 2

Making Molasses 1

Nursery business/ Seed trading 1 2 4

Making Parched Rice 1 1 4

Making dish out od Sal leaf 7

Making items from and Trading in Sola (Aeschynomene aspera)

4

Running Poultry Farm 1 5 2 3

Pisciculture 1 5 4

Fishing in open access areas (River/Coast) 5 2 3

Repairing and selling Fishing Nets 1

Livestock Selling 1 1

Trading in milk and making milk products 9 4 13

Non-Farm daily Labour jobs 40 50 70 71

Labour Job in Brick Field 1 2

Labour job in Bidi Making 3

Total 210 153 187 164

64

A3.2 Activity Category: Non-Agriculture related business


Gangetic Alluvial


Coastal Saline

Iron chest (Almirah) Making Unit 1

Automobile Repairing unit 2 1 1 2

Wooden Furniture Making unit 2 1

Iron grill and gate manufacturing unit 1 1

Ice-cream making unit 1

Husking Mill (Rice/Oilseed) 4 1

Machine Repairing Shop 1

Decorating and Catering business 3 2 1 2

Cloth Merchant 1 1 2

Construction Material Supplier 3 2 2

Sanitary and Hardware Merchant 1 1 1 1

LPG distribution 1

Selling of Lottery tickets 1 1

Grocery / Stationary Shop / Tea stall 21 22 13 25

Mobile (selling/recharging) Shop 1 1 2

Jewellery Shop 1

Medicine Shop 2 1

Meat Shop 3 2

Book Shop 1

Beauty Parlour 1 1

Barber shop 4 2 1

Cyber Café 1

Electrical/Electronic Goods shop 3 1 1 1

Shoe Shop 1

Sweets Shop 1 2 1

Tailoring shop 2 2 4 8

Photography Studio 2 1

Photocopying business 1 2

Other miscellaneous trading and business 1 5 7 4

Total 50 51 40 59

65

A3.3 Activity Category: Migrant labour and Self employed


Gangetic Alluvial


Coastal Saline

Migrant Labour Jobs (going outside West Bengal) 6 21 7 9

Migrant Labour Jobs (within West Bengal) 5 2 6 6

Driving small transport vehicles (Autorickshaw/Toto/Mechanized Van)

4 17 8 15

Blacksmith 1 6

Carpenter 2 7 2

Illegal Colletion and sale of coal from open pit mines 3

Cook for Mid-Day Meal (through SHGs) 18 2 17 11

Other Self Employed (barber, mechanic, electrician, plumber, etc.)

7 6 11 10

Weaver 6

Potter 2 1

Priest 3 2 1 1

Doctor (Untrained) 2 4 2 1

Private Tutor 4 4 5 3

Artisan and craftsman (wood/clay/metal) 5 8

Agent of Life Insurance Corporation/ Other insurance companies

1 1 2 1

Total 61 67 73 67

A3.4 Activity Category: Government sponsored earning programme and other earnings

Brief Description of Earning

Agro Climatic Zones

Gangetic Alluvial


Coastal Saline

Widow Pension 2 1 1 2

Old Age Pension 5 13 5 9

Temporary Salary 21 5 10 19

Temporary Salary (Govt) 1 2 1

Salary Pension 2 1 2

Pension 1 2 4 2

Govt Employee 11 13 4 8

Fishermen Pension 1

Disability Pension 2

Krishi Pension 1 2

Private Emplyoee 6 5 10 5

House Rent 1 1

Car Rent Business 3

Work under MGNREG 56 80 12 30

Total 106 126 51 79

APPENDIX-4: Brief description of Farmers’ Clubs operating in sample villages

Name and address of the Farmer’ Club

Member Strength

Usual Activity Meeting

regularity

Meeting Atten-dance

Benefits to the members and the club

Daudpur Matangini Farmer’s Club, [Established 2011] Mathurapur, South 24 Pgns

39

Members are collectively maintaining a fund for Shola (Aeschynomene aspera) cultivation. The club provides market access to the Shola cultivators to sell their products and also built a shed where various shola-based handicrafts are prepared by the local women. This club also give supports to the big livestock (cow) holders by providing medicine, health care etc. through mobile healthcare van.

Monthly 32-35

Most of the members connected to the club are getting regular income from the handicrafts they make which is collectively marketed in the wholesale market of Kolkata The Club is promoted by a local social worker and the club itself did not get any formal assistance from government departments so far.

Nabin Disha Farmer’s SHG, [Established 2013] Dakshin Salsalabari, Alipurduar

15

One of the main objectives of the group is to promote organic farming among the local farmers. The group also prepares vermicomposting fertilizers and sells it to the local farmers at cheaper rate.

Monthly 15

All members of this group have access to seasonal credit for cultivation from bank through the SHG’s facilitation at monthly 2% rate of interest. Some of them could start businesses like trading in locally available betel nuts and traditional local varieties of rice by using such bank loans. For maintaining the seed bank of local folk rice varieties the club have got Rs. 20,000 rupees twice so far. Beside, the club also has been receiving Rs 1,800 per year under the PKVY scheme since 2015.

Dafarpur Bidhanchandra Farmer’s Ciub, [Established 2014] Kalna-II, Purba Bardhaman

75

The club frequently organises training programmes to promote new farming techniques under the ATMA scheme and on organic farming under the PKVY scheme in collaboration with the local ADA Office. Besides that, recently the club has organised livestock development training programmes for the local women..

Bi-monthly 40

Eighteen farmers of the club have got the facilities for green house cultivation where a considerable amount of subsidy was disbursed by NABARD for setting up green houses. But this project has been facing some local problems for three months. The club got Rs. 7500 once from NABARD to organize a training programme.

Sabujsathi Krishak Sangathan, [Established 2014] Jashodanga, Alipurduar

101

The farmers’ club has been maintaining a seed bank and providing seeds of rice, wheat, mustard, ginger etc. to the farmers. The club frequently organises several agricultural training programmes in collaboration with the local ADA office and Terai Research Centre. In 2017, the club has got a NABARD assisted project for promoting technological interventions in traditional agricultural practices. Recently, the club has started to provide technical supports to the local marginal and small farmers, especially in tillage.

Monthly 75-80

Since 2015, the club has been getting Rs 7500 per year from NABARD for organising annual meetings and agricultural training programmes. In 2017, NABARD sanctioned a project to the club under the ‘Agricultural Machinery Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) Model Scheme’13. Total outlay of this project is Rs 20,00,000 among which NABARD has assisted Rs. 8,00,000 and remaining amount was funded through bank loans and farmer’s private investment.

13 http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/banking/nabard_pdf/Farm%20mechanization/3.Custom_Hiring_Centre.pdf

http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/banking/nabard_pdf/Farm%20mechanization/3.Custom_Hiring_Centre.pdf

67

APPENDIX-5: Survey Instrument for households Study on ‘Doubling of Farmers’ Income in West Bengal’ (2017)

[Study Sponsor: NABARD (DEAR), MUMBAI; Principal Investigator; Dr. Santadas Ghosh (Visva-Bharati), Santiniketan] Name of the Gram Panchanyet ___________________________________________ Polling Booth No.___________ Name of the Village_____________________________________________________

Respondent’s Name: ________________________________________

Interviewer’s Name:_______________________________________________________ Date of Interview: _______/______/2017

A. Household Profile:Name of HH head: ____________________________________________________________________ Father / Husband’s Name: __________________________________________

A1. Caste (Put ): 1. SC 2. ST 3. OBC 4. GEN A2. Religion(Put ): 1. Hindu 2. Muslim 3. Christian 4. Other A3. K.C.C(Put ): 1. Yes 2. No

A.4 Member Profile: (HH head name first) (Surname need not be written in table if same)

Mem

ID

Name Age (Yrs)

Sex 1=M 2=F

Edu

catio

n (C

ode)

Relation with head

(Code)

Earning Code (Blank if not earning within six

months) Beneficiary Of (Code)

Documents Possessed (Put √ or Code) Number/s of Bank

Account/s Main Other1 Other2

Ration Card

(Code) AADDHAR PAN

Jan Dhan

Job Card

1 Self

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Education Code: 0=Illiterate; Else highest class passed (1 to 15); 16=Post graduate or above

Relation Code (Relation with head): 1=Wife/Husband2=Son/Daughter 3=Father/Mother 4=Son/Daughter-in-law 5=Brother/Sister 6=Brother/Sister-in-law 7=Grandchildren 8=Other with blood relation9=Other without blood relation

Earning Code: 1=Own Agriculture; 2=Agricultural Labourer;3=Other Non-farm labourer; 4=Salaried Permanent (Govt.); 5=Salaried Permanent (Pvt.);6=Temporary Salary; 7=Own business (Agro-related);8=Own business (Other)

9=Migrant labour within WB; 10=Migrant labour outside WB; 11=Fishery; 12=Fishing; 13=Poultry; 14=Other Livestock / Dairy; 15=NREG; 16=SHG / Group Activities17= Self Employed (Doc/Priest etc).; 18=Other (Specify)

Beneficiary Code: 1=Kanyashree 2=Sabujsathi 3=Others (Spcify) Ration Card Code: 1= APL; 2= BPL;3=AAY;4=SPHH;5=PHH;6=Other

68

B.1: Description of Cultivation in Monsoon, 2016 (Including Leased-in plots)

Plot Sl

No.

Size/Area

Ownership (Code)

Irrigation (Code)

Crop Name

Whether Insured (Code)

Quantity Cost incurred (in Rupees) Avg Selling Price (Per Unit)

Selling Place

(Code) Bigha Katha Produced Sold Unit

(Code) Labour (Hired)

Tillage Seed/sapli

ng

Fertilizer &

Pesticide

irrigation

Approx. Total (If unable to

say separately)

1

2

3

4

5

B.2: Description of Cultivation in Winter, 2016-17 (Including Leased-in plots)

Plot Sl

No.

Size/Area

Ownership (Code)

Irrigation (Code)

Crop Name Whether Insured (Code)


Selling Place



Tillage Seed/sapli

ng

Fertilizer &

Pesticide

irrigation


say separately)

1

2

3

4

5

69

B.3: Description of Cultivation in Summer, 2017 (Including Leased-in plots)

Plot Sl

No.

Size/Area

Ownership (Code)

Irrigation (Code)

Crop Name Whether Insured (Code)


Selling Place



Tillage Seed/sapli

ng

Fertilizer &

Pesticide

irrigation


say separately)

1

2

3

4

5

Ownership Code: 1= Owned with title; 2=Owned without title; 3=Leased-in; 4=Leased-out; 5=Any other

Irrigation Code: 1=No irrigation; 2=Shallow; 3=Pond water lifting; 4=Cannel irrigation; 5=Through watershed management; 6=Any other

Insurance Code: 1=Yes; 2=No Unit Code: 1=KG; 2=Mon; 3=Bosta; 4=Quintal [Mention Conversion: 1 Bosta =______KG]

Selling Place Code: 1=himself in local retail market, 2=sold on field (intermediary),3=Nearest wholesale market (auction), 4=MNCs contract, 5=Govt. contract, 6= Kisan Mandi 7= pre-contracted private trader, 8=Sending collectively in city market, 9=Other intermediary 10=any other

B.4 Desired changes & Constraints:

B4.1. Regarding change in intensity

B4.2. Regarding change in technology

B4.3. Regarding crop diversification

70

C.1: Details of Income other than Agriculture:

Mem. ID. Activity (Code)

Job description From when (in years)

Approx. Net Income (Annual)

Days/month of engagement in the activity (last year)

Opinion regarding this activity

Days Months

Activity Code: 1= Salaried Pvt. (Permanent); 2= Salaried Govt. (Permanent); 3=Migrant Labour (Outside the State); 4=Migrant Labour (Within the State);

5=Agro related business; 6=Other business; 7=Fishery; 8=Fishing; 9=Poultry; 10=Other livestock/dairy; 11=MGNREGA; 12=Other temporary salary;

13=SHG/other group activities; 14=Self employed professions (Doctor, Priest etc.); 15=Agricultural Labour; 16=Other daily labour; 17=Any Other (Specify).

Opinion code: 1= want to quit this activity, 2= will continue as usual 3= will try to scale up/intensify 4= will try to scale up in a different way/technology/diversification

C.2: Constraints for desired change in these activities:

71

D. Awareness about benefit Schemes:

Category Name known (in Short)

Source of knowledge

(code)

Whether applied (Yes=1/ No=2)

Benefit got so far Year of getting benefit

Tenure of benefits

received (code)

Amount mainly utilized

for (code)

Constraint for availing if aware(code)

Agriculture

Education

Health/ Sanitation

Gas/ Electricity

Housing

Livestock

Microfinance (e.g. SHGs)

Others Livelihood

Source of knowledge (code): 1=Panchayat/Municipality, 2=School Teacher, 3=Political Leader, 4=Friends/Relatives, 5=Social Welfare stuff, 6=Anganwari workers, 7=Electronic media (radio/TV/mobile internet),

8=Print media (newspaper), 9=Others

Tenure of benefits received (code): 1=Monthly, 2=Bi-monthly, 3=Quarterly, 4=Half yearly, 5=Yearly, 6=One time, 7=Two times

Amount / goods & services mainly utilized for (code):1=Own consumption, 2=Income enhancement, 3=Saved, 4=Not doing anything, 5=Loan reimbursement, 6=Others

Constraint for availing if aware(code): 1=Political constraint, 2=Own encouragement problem, 3=Document related problem, 4=Information gap/Not aware, 5=Others

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E. Irrigation & Soil testing details:

Plot Id

Soil tested ever (Yes=1/No=2)

year of test Result (Yes=1/No=2)

Follow up benefit

Irrigation Status (code): 1=No irrigation, 2=Shallow/Submersible, 3=Pond water lifting, 4=Cannel/River, 5=Irrigation (e.g. IWMP) from project, 6=Others

Deficit in Irrigation (code): 1=water deficit, 2=High price charge, 3=Electricity problem, 4=Others

F. Storage & Marketing details (for sold products within last one year):

F1. Distance of warehouse: _______________(km) cost of transport________________________(Rs.) per_______________(unit) [Name/s of product kept last year____________________________]

F2. Distance of cold storage: _______________(km) cost of transport________________________(Rs.) per_______________(unit)[Name/s of product kept last year____________________________]

Product Name

Storage details Marketing details

Amount kept in warehouse/ cold store Storing time

Releasing time

Storage cost (per unit for this duration)

Sold to (code)

Selling Price per unit

Comment (if any)

(qty) unit

Sold to (code): 1=himself in local retail market, 2=sold on field (intermediary),3=Nearest wholesale market (auction), 4=MNCs contract, 5=Govt. contract, 6= Kisan Mandi

7= pre-contracted private trader, 8=Sending collectively in city market, 9=Other intermediary 10=any other

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G1. Present Credit Profile and Requirement C

red

it S

l

Mem Name / Mem ID Year Source (Code)

Mortgage (Code)

Main Purpose (Code)

Total Amount

Net Outstanding

Tenure Rate of Interest (%)

Year Month Yearly Monthly

Source Code: 1=S.H.G 2=Farmer’s Society 3= GraminBank4=Other Commercial Banks5=Krishi SamabaySamity5=K.C.C6= BSKP5= Neighbour/Relative6= Mahajan7= Others

Mortgage Code: 0= No Mortgage1= Land2= Gold/Jewellery3= Others

Purpose Code: 1= Agriculture2= Pisciculture3= Animal husbandry4= Health Purpose5= Buy vehicle6= Other business7= Buy land8= Making home or digging pond9= Buy consumable goods 10=Ceremony11=

Others

G2. Requirement for further credit

H: Contract Farming

Contracted Crop

Contract Farming 1= Yes 2=No

Known Person 1= Yes 2=No

Awareness (Code)

Willingness 1= Yes 2=No

Contracting from Year

Awareness Code: 1=Only Heard 2=Know about the Company 3=Tried to start 4=Others

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I: Description of livestock:

Cow Goat Sheep Pig Chicken Duck

1.How many of these animals do you have currently?

2.What is approximate monthly cost (if any) for feed/fodder? (Rs.)

3.Wkat is the approximate total revenue from it last year? (Rs.)

J. Average Expenditure:

Children’s education Health / Medicine Ordinary/Smart phone recharge Smart phone data recharge Aggregate expenditure

Monthly (Average) (Rs.)

K. Any special observation for this household:

Doubling of Farmers’ Income by 2022 - NABARD€¦ · „Doubling of Farmers‟ Income by 2022‟...

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