Incidence of poverty among marginal and small farmers in rural Punjab

In this study an attempt has been made to analyse the incidence of poverty among the marginal and small farmers in the rural areas of Punjab. On the basis of the expert group criterion 46.55 per cent of the sampled farm population is living below the poverty line. The incidence of poverty is the highest in the Shivalik Foothills Region followed by the South-West and Central Plains Regions. By taking the poverty measure of 50 per cent of per capita income of the state, 80.76 per cent of total farm population is living below the poverty line. The 40 per cent of the state PCI criterion indicates that as many 72.98 per cent of the sampled farm population is living below the poverty line. The incidence of consumption based poverty among the marginal and small farmers is slightly less than the incidence of income based poverty among these categories. There is an inverse relation between the farm size and farm population living below the poverty line in all the three regions.