Two important surveys, viz, the Situation Assessment Survey and the All-India Debt and Investment Survey were conducted in the 59th round of the National Sample Survey Organisation in 2003. A common topic was the indebtedness of farmer/cultivator households. The estimates of incidence of debt, extent of indebtedness and also the pattern of debt owed to institutional and non-institutional agencies, showed wide variations among different states and also at the all-India level in the two surveys, mainly because of the differences in concepts, definitions, methods of data collection, sample design, etc.