Annual Report 2009-2010 - Department of Agriculture & Co-operation

Annual Report 2009-2010
44
Agricultural Credit
8.1 The Government has taken many policy
initiatives to strengthen the farm credit delivery
system for providing credit at affordable rates
of interest to support the resource requirements
of the agriculture sector. The emphasis of these
policies has been on providing timely and
adequate credit support to farmers, with
particular focus on small and marginal farmers
and weaker sections of society, to enable them
to adopt modern technology and improved
agricultural practices for increasing agricultural
production and productivity. The policy
essentially lays emphasis on augmenting credit
flow at ground level through credit planning,
adoption of region specific strategies and
rationalisation of lending policies and
procedures, and bringing down the rate of
interest on farm loans.
8.2 Institutional Arrangements: Agricultural
credit is disbursed through a multi-agency
network comprising of Commercial Banks (CBs),
8
Agricultural Credit
and Crop Insurance
Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Cooperatives.
With their vast network (covering almost all
villages in the country), wide coverage and
outreach extending to the remotest parts of the
country, the Cooperative Credit Institutions, both
in short and long-term structure, are the main
institutional agency for the dispensation of
agricultural credit. There are 1,06,384 Primary
Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), 370 District
Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) with 12,991
branches and 30 State Cooperative Banks (SCBs)
with 962 branches providing primarily short- and
medium-term agricultural credit in the country.
The long-term cooperative structure consists of
19 State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural
Development Banks (SCARDBs) with 2,430
operational units, comprising of 626 branches
and 506 Primary Agricultural and Rural
Development Banks, with 1,283 branches.
8.3 Policy Initiatives for increasing the flow
of credit: The Government has initiated several
measures to galvanise the institutional credit
system and make it more responsive to the