Department of Agriculture Economics and Statistics, CSA University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
The povery levels of rural households, based on 420 farm families from three regions (central, south-west semi-arid, and Bundelkhand) of Uttar Pradesh have been analysed. The Composite Agriculture Development Index (CADI) has revealed the proportion of marginal small farmers to be 62–80 per cent of the total sample size. The occupational structure has indicated that 68–82 per cent households are involved in agriculture and the rest in the allied business, services and labour jobs. Of the total income of households, 72.33 per cent has been found from crops and 27.67 per cent from livestock. The level of off-farm income has been found to vary from region to region. Of the total household expendture, more than 50 per cent has been found on food and the remaining on education, health and social activities, indicating thereby that the farming still enjoys the traditional status in the society and validates the Angel's law. The grouping of households into different livelihood categories on the basis of annual income per farm has revealed that 7.8 per cent of them are in ‘very poor’ (Rs 5000–12000), 43.6 per cent in ‘poor’ (Rs 12001–19000), 10.9 per cent in ‘moderate’ (Rs 19001–26000) and 37.6 per cent in ‘well off’ (above Rs 26000) categories. The study has concluded slow impact of development programmes and has suggested evolving of strong vertical diversification methods and revisiting of institutional innovations and asset-building policies.
