KEY TRENDS 

• Out of 89.35 million farmer households, 43.42 million (48.6%) were reported to be indebted*
• On an average, the amount of debt per farmer household was Rs. 12,585*
• The incidence of indebtedness was highest in Andhra Pradesh (82.0%), to be followed by Tamil Nadu (74.5%), Punjab (65.4%), Kerala (64.4%), Karnataka (61.6%) and Maharashtra (54.8%)*
• At the national level, on an average, 29 out of 100 indebted households borrowed from ‘agricultural/professional money lender’*
• Average outstanding loan per farmer household was highest in the state of Punjab, to be followed by Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu*
• Estimated number of indebted farmer households was highest in Uttar Pradesh (6.9 million), to be followed by Andhra Pradesh (4.9 million) and Maharashtra (3.6 million)*
• Indebtedness occurs due to lack of access to institutional credit. Most of the farmers who committed suicide in Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh had high, unpaid loans

* Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers Indebtedness of Farmer Households NSS 59th Round (January–December 2003)
** P. Gruère, Guillaume, Mehta-Bhatt, Purvi and Sengupta, Debdatta (2008): Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides in India, IFPRI Discussion Paper 00808, October