All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17, conducted by NABARD revealed that 52.5 per cent of the agricultural households have outstanding debt and their average outstanding debt is almost as high as the average annual income of all agricultural households.
Debt liability
According to survey 42.8 per cent of non-agricultural households in rural India are indebted that is around 10 percent less than the agricultural households.
Additionally the debt liability is higher in agricultural households while comparing with non-agricultural ones, agricultural households has an average income of around 1.07 lakh rupees that is barely 2,500 rupees more than the their average outstanding debt.
In terms of "Kisan Credit Card", the survey observes that only 10.5 per cent of agricultural households possess these cards and 66 per cent of the sanctioned credit limit is utilised by these households.
Reason for taking loans
According to All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17, 25 per cent of all loans taken by agricultural households was due to capital expenditure for agricultural purposes. While 11 per cent of loan amount was due to housing and 12 per cent due to medical expenses.
19 per cent of loans were taken for meeting running expenses for agricultural purposes and 19 per cent were taken for sundry domestic needs.
60 per cent of indebted households comes from those households owning more than two hectares of land, this indicates that households with more land are more likely to have multiple loans.
Distribution of loans
The survey reveals that, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have the highest level of indebtedness among agricultural households.
Out of total loans 46 per cent were taken from commercial banks, 10 per cent from self-help groups and around 40 per cent from non-institutional sources such as relatives, friends, moneylenders and landlords.
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