Income inequality study is an important initial step toward poverty alleviation actions. The present study was designed to study income inequality among the agricultural households in Punjab. The study was conducted by using NSSO 70th round SAS survey. The sample size used to accomplish the study was 723 agricultural-households. The findings of the study revealed that the average annual income of the agricultural households-was Rs. 68058, Rs. 115376, Rs. 222708, Rs. 323803, Rs. 570908 and Rs. 1502084 for landless, marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farm-size categories, respectively. The share of income from agriculture increased as we move from landless toward large farm-size category. The share of the income from wages and salaries was the highest among the households with lesser operational holdings. There were huge disparities between the income of small and large farmers. The households belonging to the lowest quintile have income coming-from diversified sources while the households in the upper income quintiles have income from agriculture and-allied activities. Overall, the share of non-farm income in rural agricultural households was very less. Thus, it is recommended that agro-processing industries should be set up in rural areas and skill development centres should be established to increase the avenues of employment.
Income sources, Income inequality, Gini coefficient, And Gini decomposition
