Meghalaya agricultural

Shillong, Dec 18: Meghalaya ranks first in the country as far as the average monthly income per agricultural household is concerned at Rs 29,348 per month.

It is interesting to note that Meghalaya’s average monthly income per agricultural household nearly triples the all-India average of Rs 10,218.

It is also higher than the average group of Northeastern states, which is Rs 16.863 per month.

After Meghalaya, other Northeastern states’ rank remains as such

Arunachal Pradesh – Rs 19,225

Mizoram – Rs 17,964

Sikkim – Rs 12,447

Manipur – Rs 11,227

Assam – Rs 10,675

Tripura – Rs 9,918

Nagaland – Rs 9,877

This was revealed by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, who was replying to a question by Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjeev Arora during the ongoing winter session of the Parliament.

At the all-India level, Punjab’s average monthly income per agricultural household is second-highest at Rs 26,701 and other states are –

Haryana – Rs 22,841

Jammu & Kashmir – Rs 18,918

Group of UTs – Rs 18,511

Kerala – Rs 17,915

Uttarakhand – Rs 13,552

Karnataka – Rs 13,441

Gujarat – Rs 12,631

Rajasthan – Rs 12,520

Himachal Pradesh – Rs 12,153

Tamil Nadu – Rs 11,924

Maharashtra – Rs 11,492

Andhra Pradesh – Rs 10,480

Chhattisgarh – Rs 9,677

Telangana – Rs 9,403

Madhya Pradesh – Rs 8,339

Uttar Pradesh – Rs 8,061

Bihar – Rs 7,542

West Bengal – Rs 6,762

Odisha – Rs 5,112

Jharkhand – Rs 4,895


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Considering dependence on maximum cash crops, Punjab would rank first, but Meghalaya has a major share of horticulture and fruits.

Experts have advised Punjab farmers to go for diversification by taking up horticulture and fruits as done by Meghalaya.

The Union minister was quoting the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households in the rural areas of the country conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) during the 77th round (January 2019- December 2019) with reference to the agricultural year July 2018-June 2019.

The agriculture income includes income from wages, income from leasing out of the land, net receipt from crop production, net receipt from farming of animals, and net receipt from the non-farm business.