Abstract
Agrarian credit markets have been at the centre of policy intervention in India since the beginning of the last century, when the cooperative movement was launched in an attempt to provide an institutional alternative to the exploitative moneylenders. Yet, providing adequate and timely institutional finance to farmers continues to be one of the most intractable problems. The focus of this paper is on the agrarian credit markets in the state of Punjab, once labelled as India’s most successful experiment in agricultural development. However, the state has now been caught up in a severe agrarian crisis, with indebtedness of farmers and their ensuing suicides occupying centre stage. This is symptomatic of the alarming dominance of informal lenders engaged in exploitative practices through interlinking the credit market with output, input and labour markets, and the failure of the institutional credit set up to thwart such practices. The study thus traces in general the growth trajectory of the agrarian credit structure in Punjab, while also reflecting on the presence of interlinked credit transactions. The features and impact of such transactions have been documented using empirical data from a revisit microstudy carried over a twenty-year period in a single district of Punjab.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
States not mentioned rank wise. Union territories have been excluded in this comparison
References
Chandrasekhar S (2014) Reading the tea leaves on financial inclusion: the case of rural labour households. Econ Polit Wkly XLIX(3):43–51
EPW Research Foundation (2007–2008) Agricultural credit in India: changing profile and regional imbalances, Mumbai
Gill A (2000) Rural credit markets: financial sector reforms and the informal lenders. Deep and Deep Publishers, New Delhi
Gill A (2010) Punjab peasantry: a question of life and debt. In: Deshpande A (eds) Agrarian crisis and farmers suicides. Sage Publications, New Delhi, pp 292–311
Golait R (2007) Current issues in agricultural credit in India: an assessment. Reserve Bank India Occas Pap 28(1):79–99
Govt. of India (2008) Implementation of the agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme. Press Information Bureau, May 23. Available at http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx. Accessed 6 Mar 2014
Government of India (2005) Indebtedness of farmer households-Situation assessment survey of farmers. NSSO 59th Round, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, New Delhi, May
Government of India (2007) Report of the expert group on agricultural indebtedness. Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi, July
Government of India (2010) Report of the task force on credit related issues of farmers. Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi, June
Government of India (2013) State of Indian Agriculture 2012–13. Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ministry of agriculture, New Delhi
Govt. of Punjab, Statistical Abstract, 1980, 1995 and 2012, Chandigarh
Haque T (2014) Ensure credit for farmers from banks. The Sunday Tribune, 23 Feb, p 14
Pradhan NC (2013) Persistence of informal credit in rural India: evidence from all India debt and investment survey and beyond. Department of Economic and Policy Research, RBI Working Paper Series, April
Reserve Bank of India (2004) Report of the advisory committee on flow of credit to agriculture and related activities from the banking system, Mumbai, June
Samantara S. (2010) Kisan credit card—a study. Occasional paper no. 52, NABARD, Mumbai
Satish P (2006) Agricultural institutional credit, indebtedness and suicides in Punjab. Econ Polit Wkly XLI(26):2754–2761
Satyasai KJS (2008) Rural credit delivery in India: structural constraints and some corrective measures. Agri Econ Res Rev 21:387–394
Shergill HS (2010) Growth of farm debt in Punjab 1997 to 2008. Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh
Singh K (2009) Agrarian crisis in Punjab: high indebtedness, low returns, and farmers’ suicides. In: Reddy and Misra (eds) Agrarian crisis in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp 261–284
Singh K (1990) Case studies of successful farmers, societies and private entrepreneurs: experience and issues. Keynote Paper Indian J Agri Econ 45(3):347–354
Singh L, Kesar SB, Rakesh S (2013) Agrarian crisis in Punjab: study of suicides of farmers’ and agricultural labourer’s. A report submitted to ICSSR, Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala
Singh S (2014) Making direct payments to farmers. The Tribune, 8 Feb, p 20
Singh S et al (2007) Flow of funds to farmers and indebtedness in Punjab. The Punjab state farmers commission, Govt. of Punjab, February
Subbarao D (2012) Agricultural credit-accomplishments and challenges. Speech delivered at the thirty years anniversary celebrations of NABARD, Mumbai, 12 July
World Bank (2012) World development indicators. World Bank, Washington DC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gill, A. (2016). Agricultural Credit in Punjab: Have Policy Initiatives Made a Dent in Informal Credit Markets?. In: Singh, L., Singh, N. (eds) Economic Transformation of a Developing Economy. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0197-0_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0197-0_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0196-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0197-0
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)