Level and Pattern of Income of Farm Households and Agricultural Landless Labourers in Rural Punjab

The objective of the paper was to analyze level and pattern of income of sampled farmer households and landless agricultural labourers in rural Punjab across the zones. The results revealed that an average household income and per capita income was directly related with the agricultural productivity and farm-size. It was noticed that the possession of land was directly proportional to the earnings of the sampled households. The land holdings have a huge impact on income. As land holding size increases, the income of sampled households also moved in the same direction. Also, in the case of landless agricultural labourers, it was found that their major source of income was providing services in the form of hiring out labour. An average sampled farmer households and landless agricultural labourers have the highest income in the Doaba zone followed by Majha and Malwa zones, respectively. An inter-zonal analysis shows that the sampled farmer households have a relatively less skewed distribution of income in the Doaba zone. The Gini-coefficient showed that concentration of per household income was greater than the per capita income in all the three zones.