Economic status of farming in border districts of Punjab

The study was intended to find socio-economic characteristics of peasantry in border areas of Punjab which consist of six districts namely, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Pathankot, Tarn Taran, Fazilka and Ferozepur. By using four stage random sampling technique, a sample of 80 farmers covering four blocks and eight villages of Pathankot and Tarn Taran districts of Punjab was taken for the study. The average family size of the farm household was 5.10 members with the marginal households having smallest families and the large farm-size having the largest families across different farm-size categories. Most of the medium and large farmers were either graduate or post graduate while higher education was seldom pursed by the households in marginal and small farm-size category in the study area. The average annual income earned by the farm households was Rs 9.23 lakh in which on farm sources have around 74 per cent share and off-farm income sources around 26 per cent. The income of the households was Rs 2.15 lakh, Rs 4.91 lakh, Rs 9.32 lakh, Rs 14.98 lakh and Rs 23.76 lakh for marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farm-size category households, respectively. However, off-farm activities constituted major income sources in case of the marginal farmers. For irrigation, tube-wells were the most preferred source of irrigation in all farm categories and many farmers in Pathankot district rely on canal water for irrigation. The most common assets which were owned by almost all the farmers include tractor and trolley. Average livestock possession in this area was around 4 animals per household.