Key Indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India Released

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, conducted a survey on Land andLivestock Holdings in the rural areas of the country as a part of NSS 70thRound during January, 2013 to December, 2013.  Similar survey on the same subject was last conducted by NSSO ten years back i.e. during January, 2003 - December, 2003 as a part of its 59th Round.     NSSO has released the key indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India based on the data collected in the 70th Round Survey.  The detailed results of the survey are planned to be released in two main reports, one on ‘Household ownership and Operational holdings in India’ and the other on ‘Livestock holdings in India’.    The main objective of the survey on Land and Livestock is to generate basic quantitative information on the agrarian structure of the country relevant to land policy. Detailed quantitative information on various aspects of land ownership holdings, operational holdings and ownership of livestock was collected in the survey. The collected information includes area of plots, type of use of plots, leasing pattern, ownership of plots, irrigation facility, type of crop production/farming, number of different types of livestock owned, etc.           The survey covered the entire rural areas of the Indian Union. The results of the survey are based only on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO, consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union Territories.The information of the round was collected in two visits from the same set of sample households. The first visit was made during January 2013– July 2013 and the second, during August, 2013 - December 2013.  A total number of 35,604 households were surveyed in first visit and 35, 337 of them in second visit.         Some key indicators on various aspects of land and livestock holdings by the rural households in the country are as follows: A.    Ownership of  Land ·         During the agricultural year July, 2012- June, 2013, rural India had an estimated total area of92.3 million hectares under household ownership of land and the average area owned per household was 0.592 hectares. ·         Within the rural households, the marginal land owners (i.e. possessing more than 0.002 but less than or equal to 1.0 hectare of land) constituted the highest proportion(75.42%)  of total rural households, whereas the large land owners (possessing land more than 10.000 hectares) constituted the lowest proportion (0.24% ) of the total households.  The landlesscategory (possessing land less than or equal 0.002 hectare) constituted 7.41% of the total rural households. ·         In terms of percentage of total area owned, the largestcategory was the marginal land owners (i.e. possessing more than 0.002 but less than or equal to 1.0 hectare of land) owing 29.75% of the total land area owned. ·         Among all the ownership holdings, the households with self-employed in cultivation as the major source of income, owned the highest share of land (81.4% of the total land area owned) with average area owned 1.104 hectares. Share of land owned by the households with self-employed in livestock farming and the households with self-employed inother agricultural activities were1.5% each of the total land area owned. B.     Operational Holding of Land ·         During the agricultural year July,2012- June,2013, rural India had an estimated 108 million household operational holdings, covering a total area of 98.6 million hectares of land. The average area operated per holding (ha) was estimated at 0.907 hectares.  Trends in cultivationpattern ·         88.6% of the household operational holdings were operated for the whole agricultural year, whereas 8.5% was operated only during July,2012 to December,2012, and 2.9% only during January,2013 to June,2013. ·         The land use pattern shows that the estimated land area used for crop production was around 94.7% during the season July,2012 – December,2012 and around 79% during the season January,2013 – June2013.  Percentage areas of land used for non-agricultural purposes were 2.83% and 13.85% in these two periods respectively.   ·         The highest percentage of area was used for growing cereals in both the periods July, 2012 – December, 2012 (56.21%) and January,2013 – June,2013 (57.74%). The next major use of land was for production of oil seeds (13.75% and 7.34%) and pulses (6.30% and 10.20%) in the two seasons respectively. ·         At all India level, the major source of irrigation was ground water (tube well, well, etc) covering 67% of irrigated land area during July, 2012-December, 2012 and 71% during January,2013-June, 2013. ·         During the season July, 2012 – December, 2012, the major States where land area was mostly affected by flood included Andhra Pradesh (26%), Assam (23%), Bihar (17%) and West Bengal (13%) . Amongst these, agricultural activities were mostly affected by flood in the States of Assam (7%) and West Bengal (4%). Trends in Livestock Farming ·         Among the land used for animal farming (i.e., dairy, poultry/ duckery, piggery, fishery and farming of other animals) the major use of land was made in dairy (53.8% and 69.7%) in July, 2012 – December, 2012 and January, 2013 – June, 2013 respectively. In about, 18.7% and 11.8% of land area was used forfishery during the two seasons. ·         The percentage of area used for all types of farming of animals is 0.97% in July,2012 – December,2012 and 1.69 % during January,2013 – June,2013. Also, 36.69% of household operational holdings reported farming of animals in July, 2012 – December, 2012, and 43.58% reported in January, 2013 – June, 2013. C.        Stock of Livestock/Poultry Birds holding in the country ·         The stock of cattle and buffalo of the country was estimated at 204 million during     2012-13. The estimated population of sheep & goat during the period was about 99 million. ·         The population of poultry birds has been estimated at 255 million during the year     2012-13.

Key indicators of situation of Agricultural Households in India

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, conducted Situation Assessment Surveyof Agricultural Households in its 70thround (January – December, 2013).  The detailed results of this survey will be brought out through a series of three reports.  In order to make available the salient results of the survey to the data users, well in advance of the release of the main reports, NSSO has released the key indicators of situation of agricultural households in India. NSSO conducted a similar survey on ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ during January - December, 2003 in the rural areas of the country as part of its 59th round.              The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union. The survey aimed at capturing the condition of agricultural households in the rural areas of the country in the context of policies and programmes of Government of India. It was designed to collect information on various aspects relating to farming and other socio-economic characteristics of agricultural households. Information on consumer expenditure, information on income and productive assets, their indebtedness, farming practices and preferences, resource availability, awareness of technological developments, access to modern technology in the field of agriculture and information on crop loss & crop insurance was also collected. With a view to collect relevant information, separately for the two major agricultural seasons in a year, the same set of sample households was visited two times during the survey period.  The first visit was made during January- July 2013 and the second during August- December 2013.  The reference period for data collection was the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.             An agricultural household for this survey was defined as a household receiving  value of produce, more than Rs.3000/- from agricultural and having at least one member self-employed in agriculture either in the principal status or in subsidiary status during last 365 days.  On the other hand, in the ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ conducted in NSS 59th Round, a ‘farmer’ was defined as a person who possesses some land and is engaged in some agricultural activities on that land during last 365 days preceding the date of survey. Thus the definition followed in NSS 59th Round had kept all agricultural activities of persons outside the scope of the survey which did not possess and operate any land. Due to the change in coverage and difference in some important concepts and definitions followed in this survey vis-a-vis the 59th round survey, the results of these two rounds are not strictly comparable. While making any comparison of results of these two rounds, sufficient care should be taken to account for these differences. The results of the survey are based on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO, consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union Territories. A total number of 35,200 households were surveyed in first visit and 34,907 of them could be re-surveyed in second visit. Some salient findings of the survey regarding situation of agricultural households in the country are as follows: A.     Number of Agricultural households ·         During the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013, rural India had an estimated total of 90.2 million agricultural households, which constituted about 57.8 percent of the total estimated rural households of the country during the same period. ·         Uttar Pradesh, with an estimate of 18.05 million agricultural households, accounted for about 20 percent of all agricultural households in the country. ·         Rajasthan had highest percentage of agricultural households (78.4 percent) among its rural households and Kerala had the least percentage share of agricultural households (27.3 percent) in its rural households. Out of the total estimated agricultural households in the country, about 45 percent belonged to Other Backward Classes. About 16 percent agricultural households were from Scheduled Castes and 13 percent from Scheduled Tribes. B.     Source of Income  of Agricultural households ·         Principal source of income of agricultural households is largely determined by the extent of land possession. ·         Majority of the agricultural households which possessed more than 0.40 hectare land,  reported cultivation as their principal source of income. ·         Among the agricultural households having less than 0.01 hectare land, about 56 percent reported wage/salary employment as their principal source of income and another 23 percent reported livestock as their principal source of income. ·         Agricultural activity (cultivation, livestock and other agricultural activities) was reported to be the principal source of income for majority of the agricultural households in all the major States, except Kerala where about 61 percent of the agricultural households reported to have received maximum income from sources other than agricultural activities. About 44 percent of the estimated agricultural households in the country had MGNREGA job card during the survey period. In rural India about 12 percent agricultural households did not possess any ration card as on the date of the survey. BPL card was possessed by about 36 percent of the estimated agricultural households and another 5 percent possessed ‘Antyodaya’ cards. About 13 percent agricultural households having land less than 0.01 hectare did not have ration card. C.     Possession of Land by Agricultural households About 0.1 percent of the estimated agricultural households in rural India were landless. About 93 percent of agricultural households in the country possessed some type of land other than ‘homestead land only’ and little less than 7 percent possessed only homestead land. Around 78.5 percent of the agricultural households did not possess any land outside the village they were residing during the survey period. Among the households reported land possession outside the village, about 17.5 percent had land within the State itself and about 4 percent had land outside the State. D.     Income, investment and indebtedness About 52 percent of the agricultural households in the country were estimated to be indebted. Among the major States, Andhra Pradesh had the highest share of indebted agricultural households in the country (92.9 percent) followed by Telengana (89.1 percent) and Tamil Nadu (82.5 percent). In rural India, about 60 percent of the amount of outstanding loans taken by the agricultural households was taken from the institutional sources, which included Government (2.1 percent), Co-operative society (14.8 percent) and banks (42.9 percent). Share of income of agricultural households from non-farm business in their average monthly income decreased with increase in land possession. Net investment in productive assets per agricultural household increased with increase in land size. E.     Farming practices, crop insurance etc. Of the estimated 90.2 million agricultural households in the country, 86.5 percent households were engaged in crop production during the period July 2012- December 2012. The average gross cropped area per agricultural household during this period was 0.937 hectare. The survey results indicated that very small segment of agricultural households utilized crop insurance. Lack of awareness was the most reported reason by the agricultural households for not insuring their crops during the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.

Initiatives taken to Reduce Malnutrition

As per the World Bank Report titled ‘Nutrition in India’, India loses over 12 billion U.S. Dollar in Gross Domestic Product due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in Indian population.  It also reports significant direct and indirect economic losses due to under-nutrition associated with direct productivity losses estimated at more that 10 percent of lifetime individual earnings and about 2-3 percent loss of GDP. Indirect losses are due to poor mental development and schooling, and increased costs of healthcare. As per the comparison from second and third National Family health Survey conducted in 1998-99 and 2005-06 respectively, the prevalence of stunting among children under-three years of age has declined from 51 per cent to 44.9 percent; however the prevalence of wasting among children under age three years has increased from 19.7 per cent to 22.7 percent.  The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition in the country and is implementing several schemes/programmes under different Ministries/Departments through State Governments/UT Administrations, the details being as follows: ·         Under multi-sectoral approach for accelerated action on the determinants of malnutrition in targeting nutrition in schemes/programmes of all the sectors. The schemes/programmes include the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), National Health Mission (NHM), Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Schemes for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) namely SABLA,  Indira Gandhi MatritvaSahyogYojna (IGMSY) as direct targeted interventions. Besides, indirect Multi-sectoral interventions include Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), National Horticulture Mission, National Food Security Mission, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc.  All these schemes address one or other aspect of nutrition. ·         The specific interventions targeted towardsthe vulnerable groups include children below 6 years. The main schemes/programmes of Ministry of Women and Child Development which have a bearing on the nutritional status includes the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme which provides a package of six services namely supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education, immunization, health check-up and referral services. ·         Under National Health Mission of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the remedial steps taken are as follows: -        Promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices that include early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months of age and appropriate complementary feeding after 6 months of age. -        Management of malnutrition and common neonatal and childhood illnesses at community and facility level by training service providers in IMNCI (Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses) training. -        Treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition at special units called the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), set up at public health facilities. Presently 875 such centres are functional all over the country. -        Specific program to prevent and combat micronutrient deficiencies of Vitamin A and Iron & Folic Acid (IFA) in under-five children, children of 5 to 10 years of age, and adolescents.  -        Village Health and Nutrition Days and Mother and Child Protection Card are the joint initiative of the Ministries of Health & Family welfare and the Ministry of Woman and Child for addressing the nutrition concerns in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Bharat Bill Payment System

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposes to set up anytime anywhere bill payment system under Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). RBI has issued guidelines for implementation of BBPS on November 28, 2014. The BBPS is designed to function as a tiered structure for operating the bill payment system in the country with a single brand image providing convenience of ‘anytime anywhere’ bill payment to customers. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been designated as the authorized Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU) to set the standards for BBPS processes which need to be adhered to by all authorized operating units under the system. The applications for authorization can be submitted to the Reserve Bank of India from the first quarter of 2015.

Kisan Vikas Patra

Government has formulated a number of schemes having different features for different segments of the saving population. Each of the available saving option has different features in terms of eligibility to invest, rate of interest, maturity period, lock-in-period, tax treatment, pledging facility, minimum and maximum ceilings etc. Main features of KVP, are: Amount invested in Kisan Vikas Patra (KYP) doubles in 100 months at the present rates. The certificates can be purchased by an adult for himself or on behalf of a minor or to a minor. It can also be purchased jointly by two adults. A certificate may be transferred from one person to another with consent in writing to an officer of the Post Office or Bank. Under the scheme the transferee has to be eligible to purchase the certificate. The certificate may be prematurely encashed any time after two years and a half from the date of purchase, in the event of death of holder or any holder in case of joint holder, on order of court of Law and forfeiture by a pledge. The Government has no proposal to separately tax benefit on KVP. However, income on KVP would be taxable as per existing provisions. Investor will have to undergo Know Your Customer (KYC) modalities at the time of application. In the case of transfer of KVP from one customer to another, a request has to be made in writing to an officer of the Post Office or Bank and the transferee has to be eligible to purchase KVP certification in the first instance. Kisan Vikas Patra (KYP) has been reintroduced and is available in Post Offices. In future, DVP will be available in banks which are/will be authorized for handling small savings schemes.

India’s Role in IMF and WB

India has sought a greater role in International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). The voice and quota reforms in IMF WB are an ongoing process. India’s quota share in IMF increased from 1.91 percent to 2.44 percent in 2011. The 2010 IMF Quota and Governance Reforms (also referred to as the 14th General Review of Quotas) will increase India’s quota share from the current 2.44 percent to 2.75 percent, making India the eighth largest quota holding country at the IMF from the current position of being eleventh largest. Government of India has conveyed its consent to the reforms and proposed quota increase. For the reforms to enter into force: (i) Member countries having no less than 70 percent of the total of quotas have to consent in writing to the increase in quotas; and (ii) Reform of the Executive Board has to be accepted by three-fifth of the Fund’s 188 members (or 113 members) having 85 percent of the Fund’s total voting power. 159 members, representing 78.88 percent of the IMF Quotas have consented to the proposed Quota increases and 145 members representing 76.97 percent of quota have accepted the proposed amendment to the reform of the Executive Board of the IMF. Since the Monterrey consensus in 2002, voice reforms of the World Bank (in IBRD, i.e. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) have taken place in two phases, the first phase in 2008 and the second phase in 2010. With the complete implementation of reforms, India will become the seventh largest shareholder in IBRD with voting power of 2.91 percent from 2.77 percent.

Zero Mass Foundation

As per information received from State Bank of India (SBI), it has handed over the task of opening and operating the accounts in rural areas to an organization known as “Zero Mass Foundation (ZMF)”, which is one of their National Business Correspondents (BC). BC model envisages use of intermediate agents/organizations for supporting the Bank in extending financial services to unbanked population at an affordable cost at their door step. ZMF is operating in Assam, Tripura, Sikkim, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Till now it has opened more than 99 lakh Savings Bank accounts under Small Accounts category. The operations done in the account are safe as all ZMFs, Customer Service Point (CSP) are connected to Bank’s server in a firewall secured environment. All financial transactions are happening at online real-time basis. Each debit/credit transaction happening at CSP service point reflects in Bank’s Core Banking System (CBS) and a system generated print out is given to the customer for each transaction as an acknowledgement of the gransaction.