Regional disparity in institutional credit to agriculture sector in India: trends and performance.

Credit is as an indirect input in agricultural production. By easing liquidity constraint, it enables farmers adopt modern technology and invest in farm infrastructure. The Government of India initiated several policy measures to improve outreach of the financial institutions to farming and rural communities. As a result, the share of institutional credit, increased from 7% in 1951 to 67% in 2018. The credit to agricultural sector increased from Rs.46268 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs.1863363 crore in 2021-22 at an annual growth of 19.5%. There was an impressive increase in the credit intensity from Rs.26100 per hectare in 2011-12 to Rs.93210 per hectare in 2021-22. However, there exist significant regional disparities in it -- Rs.21756 in north eastern region to Rs.259554 in southern region. Such stark disparities in agricultural credit warrant attention of the policymakers to re-orient the agricultural credit policy to the needs of the credit-starved regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]