The sustenance of marginal and small farm households is a pertinent question given that their number is on the rise in South-Asia. The study aims to assess their present socio-economic profile and the challenges faced in order to draw a roadmap of development for these underprivileged households. The study pertains to Indian Punjab and data from the Situation Assessment Survey of the 70th Round of NSSO are used. The concepts of economic surplus, occupational diversity, farm productivity and vertical and horizontal inequalities are used to achieve the objectives. This study reveals that marginal farm households faced food insecurity as they failed to meet consumption expenditure from the income earned. In fact, small farm households are left with an annual economic surplus of Rs 8890 per capita only, after meeting consumption needs. Income is unevenly distributed among farm households with a Gini coefficient of 0.48. The majority of the marginal and small farm households fall in lower-income quintiles and are occupationally more diversified than their larger counterparts. Horizontal inequalities are lower between the farm-size categories (0.14) than within farm-size categories (0.27). The Gini coefficient within each farm-size category is the highest among marginal farm households (0.50), followed by small farm households (0.45), highlighting their economic stress and tug-of-war survival. Further, the farm households belonging to socially lower castes falls only in the marginal farm-size category and represent the lowest income. Development must be sustainable and inclusive, hence, policies to develop marginal farmers’ centric farming systems and high value crops such as potato, cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds, providing high yielding livestock breeds, value addition through farmer-producer organizations, non-farm employment through MGNREGA, provision of institutional credit at subsidised rate of interest and quality health and education facilities in the public sector are recommended to uplift the affected households.

Income distribution is found to be highly skewed among farm households with a Gini coefficient of 0.48. Most of the marginal and small farm households are in lower-income strata. Higher participation in pluriactivity and the highest Gini coefficient within each farm size category for marginal (0.50) and small farm size category households (0.45) highlight the tug of war for survival. Regression analysis revealed that less-educated and resource-poor farmers engaged themselves more in non-agricultural and unorganised sources of income, i.e., wages and non-farm business. Source-wise decomposition revealed that livestock and casual wages decrease income inequality. Hence, small holder farmer-centric farming systems and crops, low interest rate loans for women engaged in livestock rearing, agro-processing units and skill development centres to increase the share of non-farm income in total income are the key policy interventions.

Investment is the expenditure incurred for real capital formation. A sample of 150 farmers was taken with 23 (15.3%), 28 (18.7%), 46 (30.7%), 43 (28.67%) and 10 (6.7%) farmers selected from marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farm size categories respectively in proportion to the share of respective category in total farmers in Punjab. Income, consumption, funds available post-consumption and investment level of the respondent farmers was worked out to find the factors that affect farm investment. Information related to education level, family type, cropping pattern and credit availability was also collected to see if they affect the level of investment. Income, consumption and funds available post-consumption were higher for larger farm households. The level of investment was higher on large farms but the investment per hectare was highest on marginal farms. The availability of credit was more on larger farms but per cent share of credit in investment decreased as the farm size increased as large farmers were using owned funds extensively. The regression analysis revealed that the size of the operational holdings, saving and the credit availability showed positive relation with the level of investment while the education level, family type and cropping intensity were non-significant.

Credit plays an important role in the development of agriculture. A sample of 150 farmers was taken with 23, 28, 46, 43 and 10 farmers selected from marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farm size categories respectively. The share of borrowed funds in the total investment was 43.19 percent. In borrowed funds, share of institutional and non-institutional credit was 65.98 and 34.02 percent respectively. Share of non-institutional credit was significant so it was suggested that government may regularized working of non-institutional credit agencies to keep check on their working. Problems faced by the farmers in availing institutional credit were non-cooperative attitude of staff of revenue department, offering security and rigid repayment plan and in case of noninstitutional credit were high rate of interest, offering security and inadequate amount. Reasons for opting non-institutional sources of credit were no paperwork, secrecy, and easy access.

The present study analyzed the income and expenditure pattern of agricultural labourers in South-Western Punjab. A sample of 60 households were selected from the region and primary data were collected by personal interview. The average agricultural labour household earned Rs.1,01,409/- and their expenditure was estimated at Rs. 1,20,046/- annum. Their annual expenditure was higher than income. The farmers preferred employing agricultural labourers as casual workers instead of permanent workers depicting casualization of labour engagement in agriculture. The economic surplus came-out to be negative. MGNERGA, health schemes for these households are required to provide immediate relief under such existing situation.

The sustainability of marginal and small farm households is a pertinent question given that their number is on the rise in South-Asia. The study aims to assess their present socio-economic profile and the challenges faced in order to draw roadmap of development for the underprivileged households. The study pertains to Indian Punjab and data from Situation Assessment Survey of 70th Round of NSSO are used. The concepts of economic surplus, occupational diversity, farm productivity, vertical and horizontal inequalities are used to achieve the objectives. This study reveals that marginal farm households faced food insecurity as they failed to meet the consumption expenditure from the income earned. Even the small farm households are left with a small surplus after meeting consumption needs. Income is unevenly distributed among farm households, with the value of the Gini coefficient being 0.48. The majority of the marginal and small farm households fall in lower-income quintiles and are occupationally more diversified than their larger counterparts. Horizontal inequalities are lower between the farm-size categories (0.14) than within farm-size categories (0.27). The Gini coefficient within each farm-size category is the highest among marginal farm households (0.50), followed by small farm households (0.45), highlighting their economic stress and tug-of-war survival. Further, the farm households belonging to socially lower castes falls only in the marginal farm-size category and represent the lowest income. Development must be sustainable and inclusive, hence, policies to develop marginal farmers centric farming systems and high value crops such as potato, cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds; providing high yielding livestock breeds; value addition through farmer-producer organizations; non-farm employment through MGNREGA; provision of institutional credit at subsidised rate of interest and; quality health and education facilities in the public sector are recommended to uplift the affected households.