Situation Assessment Survey (Visit 2), 2013

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) during the National Sample Survey (NSS) 59th round (January - December 2003) conducted a Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, the first of its kind conducted by the NSSO. Though information on a majority of items collected through SAS had been collected in some other rounds of NSS, an integrated schedule, viz., Schedule 33, covering some basic characteristics of farmer households and their access to basic and modern farming resources was canvassed for the first time in NSS 59th Round.

Following the same objectives of NSS 59th round survey, in NSS 70th round survey, it was decided to conduct/repeat the Situation Assessment Survey during January to December 2013. The areas of interest for conducting SAS included the educational level of farmer households; economic well-being of farmer households as measured by consumer expenditure; income and productive assets; indebtedness; their farming practices and preferences; resource availability; and their awareness of technological developments and access to modern technology in the field of agriculture. In this survey, detailed information was collected on receipts and expenses of households' farm and non-farm businesses, to arrive at their income from these sources. Income from other sources was also ascertained, and so was the consumption expenditure of the households.

The major changes made with respect to concepts in the questionnaire are: a) In contrast to the definition of farmer used in 59th round, the necessary condition of 'land possession' has been dispensed with in this round. b) The nomenclature Farmer household' has been changed toAgricultural Household'. Accordingly, the name of the survey has been changed to `Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households' c) References to 'kharif' and 'rabi' seasons have been removed. Instead it was decided to collect data for two halves of the agriculture year 2012-13 as July to December 2012 and January to June 2013. d) It was decided to collect actual expenditure (out of pocket expenditure) incurred by the household for running farm and non-farm business. Schedule 33 is designed for collection of information on aspects relating to farming and other socio-economic characteristics of agricultural households. The information was collected in two visits to the same set of sample households. The second visit was made during August to December 2013. The survey was conducted in rural areas only. Unlike 59th round, it has been decided that schedule 33 will be canvassed in both Central and State samples.