Microeconomic Aspects of Farm Household Production and the State of Vulnerability: Empirical Evidence from a Village Economy of Indian Punjab

Many scholars have argued that sustainability of the intensive agricultural production system in Punjab has become ecologically and economically costly. To find answers to the agrarian crisis and economically costly model of agriculture, this paper has examined the microeconomic aspects relating to farm households at the village level by census survey. This study has looked into different aspects of wheat-paddy monoculture farming on 734 acre fertile and irrigated land as operational landholding and 70 farm households in a village. The marginal and small farm households have been experiencing the state of vulnerability by adopting modern agricultural practices and cropping pattern as revealed by the total earnings (farming+ livestock) and total expenditure of the farm households. The per capita monthly income across farm household is: 1330 for marginal farmers, 4141 for small farmers, 5811 for medium farmer and 10490 for big farm households at current prices. The study has endorsed the view that that model of Punjab agriculture which was introduced in the mid-1960s requires fundamental changes in the context of ownership of land, cropping pattern and practice of farming.