As per the “Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers” conducted as a part of the 59th round of National Sample Survey (January–December 2003), at an all-India level, estimated number of rural households was 147.90 million, of whom 60.4% were farmer households. Out of this, 74.97 million households were small and marginal farmer households (SFMF).
However, many empirical studies conclude that policy interest rates that were negative in real terms and deviated from  2  For example, considering 15 U.S. stock market crashes over the previous century, Mishkin and White (2002) find that not all resulted in economic contractions, and Bleaney and Castilla-Vargas (2009) demonstrate that currency depreciations during 1985–2004 were expansionary in developed markets.