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Indian agriculture, post green revolution, has been undergoing
a slow but steady process of diversification and commercialization,
which have resulted in the shifting of cropping pattern
from traditional crops to new crops and new markets. Share
of non-food grain crops in the total agricultural production
has gone up from 25.7% during the triennium ending 1970-71
to 35.1% during 1999-2000. Within the broad agriculture
sector, the share of livestock sector has improved from
16% in 1970-71 to 25.2% in 1999-2000 and the share of fisheries
has also increased from 1.7% to 3.8% during the period.
Institutional credit, as in the case of every resource scarce
developing economy, played a crucial role in these developments.
Vibrant institutional credit support to agricultural sector
through extensive financing of key inputs like improved
seeds, chemical fertilizers/pesticides, irrigation, etc.
led to improved performance of Indian agriculture during
the late 1960s and 1970s. The credit strategy for agricultural
development in the country has been founded on the philosophy
of `growth with equity'. Despite tremendous achievements
on major banking indicators, several challenges remain to
be addressed.
The level of access to credit by the farming community
and its extent were always a matter of concern to the policy
makers and planners in the country. The results of the Situation
Assessment Survey of Farmers _ Indebtedness of Farmer Households—recently
brought out by the NSSO (Situation Assessment Survey of
Farmers) contain data relating to the incidence, extent
and nature of indebtedness. The report points out that less
than half (48.6%) of our farming community (89.35 million
households) have access to any sources of credit. The situation
is more precarious in the case of small farmers, who shared
around 80% of total number of farm holdings in the country,
but have the rate of access of 45% only.
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