Institutional Credit towards Agriculture and Allied Activities in India: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Agricultural credit is an essential and integral requisite for agricultural development alongwith infrastructural needs like proper irrigation, adequate fertilizers as well as health & education supplements. Agricultural credit needs are generally made available both by institutional and non-institutional sources of credit. This essential requirement is given utmost importance by the Central Government and State Governments in India and various ways and means have been introduced from time to time in order to properly channelize the credit flow to the agricultural and allied sector. The institutional credit structure is represented by the cooperative banks, scheduled commercial banks and regional rural banks. This paper is an attempt to explore the agricultural credit scenario in India, a comparative analysis of the performances of cooperative banks, scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and regional rural banks (RRBs) in advancing direct (both short-term and long-term) as well as indirect credit in terms of percentage to total credit advanced towards the agricultural and allied activities; and the growth rate of credit advancement from these institutional sources in the pre- and post-reform periods.