Government s Agricultural economic initiatives and challenges ahead

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1 Government s Agricultural economic initiatives and challenges ahead Author: Prof. Pravin B. Rayate* Dr. Suhas. B. Dhande** Prof. Manoj R. Mahanubhav** Abstract: Indian economy is highly dependent on agriculture and hence agricultural economic initiatives are very crucial for overall economy. Government is fully aware of the fact and hence high weightage is given for agriculture in every five-year plan. Current 11 th Five-year plan is also not an exception to that. Government is setting targets for disbursement of agricultural loans to farmers and all the banks are given directions to work towards meeting the targets. Various banks have done exceptionally well and the targets are mostly met since year In spite of these measures, all the funds are not fully utilised for agricultural developments. Reasons for this are many. Firstly, flow of information is an issue. All the farmers or even Panchayats and local representatives are not fully aware of all the schemes. Those who know are taking full advantage, rather over-advantage, and majority of farmers are not at all aware of such schemes. The paper analyse various initiatives of Government to boost agricultural sector, various hindering factors badly affecting the motives behind these initiatives. Further, various recommendations are done to overcome these hindering factors and making the initiatives very fruitful for the agricultural sector. Keywords: Agricultural loan, crop loan, hindering factors *Asst. Prof. Institute of Management Research & Technology, Nashik ** Prof. & Asst. Prof. K. R. Sapkal College of Management Studies, Anjaneri, Nashik Introduction: India's large service industry accounts for 57.2% of the country's GDP while the industrial and agricultural sectors contribute 28.6% and 14.6% respectively. Agriculture is the predominant occupation in Rural India, accounting for about 52% of employment. Agriculture provides significant support for economic growth and social transformation of the country. As one of the world s largest agrarian economies, the agriculture sector including allied activities in India accounted for 14.5 per cent of gross domestic product 1

2 (GDP) at prices, in as compared to 14.7 per cent in In terms of composition, out of the total share of 14.5 per cent that agriculture and allied sectors had in GDP in , agriculture alone accounted for 12.3 per cent, followed by forestry and logging at 1.4 per cent and fishing at 0.7 per cent. Timely and corrective measures taken by the government helped boost agricultural production and growth in agriculture and allied sectors reached 7.0 per cent in , the highest growth rate achieved during the last six years. In agriculture and allied sectors are estimated to achieve a growth rate of 2.5 per cent. As a proportion of the value added by agriculture to GDP, Gross Capital Formation (GCF) in agriculture and allied sectors rose to 20.1 per cent in from 13.5 per cent in at prices which is a positive trend. The rates of growth and share of agriculture and allied activities in the GDP of the country are given below: Figures in Percentage (%) Agriculture sector: Key indicators S.No. Item * GDP- Share and Growth (at prices) Growth in GDP in agriculture & allied sectors Share in GDP-agriculture and allied sectors Agriculture Forestry and logging Fishing Share in total gross capital formation in the Country (at prices) Share of agriculture & allied sectors in total gross capital formation Agriculture Forestry and logging Fishing Employment in the agriculture sector as share of total workers as per census *AE=Advance-Estimates Source : Central Statistical Organization (CSO) & Department of Agriculture & Cooperation. These facts and figures underline the lions share and impact of agriculture sector and its contribution in overall Indian economy. Government is well aware of the fact and seriously taking initiatives and efforts to boost agriculture sector. Agricultural loan to the farmers is 2

3 one of the initiatives, which is tried to analyse in this paper. The loans are mainly of three types, viz. Short term loans, Mid-term loans and Long term loans. The short term is popularly known as Crop Loan, which is described below. CROP LOAN The crop loan is provided to meet all expenses involved in raising a particular crop including various agronomic practices. Eligibility:- Farmers cultivating owned/registered leased lands/share croppers. Quantum of loan:- As per the scale of finance fixed by the Technical Committee of each district. Depending on merits of each case, branches may sanction crop Loans 35% more than the scale of finance fixed by district technical committee. In other cases where scale of finance is not specified, the branch will work out the credit requirements of the farmer. Margin, I.E. YOUR SHARE:- Where loan limit is fixed based on scale of finance approved by Technical Committee, irrespective of loan amount - Nil For others: [where scale of finance is not approved] Up to Rs. 1,00,000/- - Nil Above Rs.1,00,000/- - 10% to 15% Rate of Interest:- The rate of interest varies a little with respect to banks but the base figure 7% Repayment:- Repayment period will be less than one year for all crops except in the case of long duration crops such as Sugarcane, Pineapple, Banana etc where it will be months. Security:- Up to Rs. 1,00,000/- DPN, Hypothecation of assets created and crops. Over Rs. 1,00,000/- DPN, Hypothecation of assets created and crops, mortgage of land &/or third party guarantee. Insurance:- All eligible crops will be covered under National Agricultural Insurance Scheme [Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana]. 3

4 In its Budget wish-list, the agriculture ministry has demanded lowering of interest rate on crop loans to 3% for those farmers who pay in time, from the existing 4%. According to sources, the ministry has suggested an additional 1% interest subvention (subsidy) on short-term crop loans of up to Rs. 3 lakh to farmers who pay their dues on time. Other farmers get crop loans at 7% interest rate. Benefits: Farm experts are of the view that cheaper crop loan facility has played an equally significant role in enhancing the country s food grains production, which is seen at a record million tonnes in crop year (July-June). Since , the government has been providing interest subvention to all public sector banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks for short-term crop loans of up to Rs. 3 lakh, so as to ensure that short-term agriculture credit was available at 7% to farmers. From , an additional 2% interest subvention was provided to those farmers, who repay their short-term crop loans in time. Thus, the short-term crop credit was available to farmers at 5% in In the last Budget, the finance minister had announced an additional 1% interest subvention on short-term crop loans and farmers repaying on time are getting loans at 4% interest rate during the current fiscal. Sources further said the ministry has suggested that the target of credit flow to agriculture sector by banks and financial institutions be continued at Rs. 4,75,000 crore in the fiscal as well. Over 1.3 lakh farmers across Yavatmal district alone have got interest relief to the tune of Rs12.18 crore on availing short term crop loan under the government sponsored Panjabrao Deshmukh Interest Concession (PDIC) scheme. Under the scheme, farmers who obtained loan up to Rs one lakh and did repayment within the prescribed tenure (i.e. up to June 30), were entitled for three percent interest concession. Farmers who took loan ranging from Rs. 1 to 3 lakh and repaid within the tenure were entitled for two percent concession on annual interest. During fiscal, the state government contributed a lion's share for the scheme. Funds were also made available from district planning and development council programmes such as special category scheme and non-tribal region sub plan. During , Rs. 4.5 crore was received and utilized for the scheme Challenges and issues: In spite of these measures, all the funds are not fully utilised for agricultural developments. Reasons for this are many. Firstly, flow of information is an issue. All the farmers or even Panchayats are not fully aware of all the schemes. Those who know are taking full advantage, rather over-advantage, and majority of farmers are not at all aware of such schemes. Secondly, corruption is at its all time high and only some share of actual initiative is reaching to the grass route level. Mismatch is the centre and state Government policies is also a crucial hindering factor. Like, the due date to settle crop loan by Central Governments is 31 st March every year, whereas the due date under Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Subsidy Scheme is 30 th June. So the farmers 4

5 settling their crop loan after 31 st March but before 30 th June, gets the subsidy of Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Subsidy Scheme but are not getting the Central Government subsidy. There is policy alignment issue. Crop loan and overall agricultural loan targets set by Government are set on total amount of loan disbursed. This can give misleading picture. If only few farmers are availing larger amounts, then it will look like target in terms of total amount is met but total number of beneficiary farmers will not be in that proportion. Major focus in agricultural loan is given to crop loan. It mitigates the short term needs of the farmers but do not build infrastructure and create sustainable course of income. Only midterm and long term loans can bring in development and permanent source of income for farmers. Recommendations & Conclusion : To create awareness about all the initiatives of Government, IT technology should be utilised. Further, Gram-Sabha has to be made compulsory and all the schemes should be properly communicated to each and every farmer. Further, the local representatives should encourage them for documentations and procedures to avail these facilities. To restrict corruption, Government should encourage ethical practices, which in turn will help reaching the initiatives to the grass route level. The due date for crop loan settlement should be aligned by the state and Central Government and preferably it should be 30 th June of every year, so that all the farmers settling their loan in time can avail full subsidy. Crop loan and overall agricultural loan targets set by Government should be set on total amount of loan disbursed as well as total number of beneficiary farmers. This will restrict only few farmers taking un-due advantage of the subsidy and large number of farmers can be benefitted. This will ensure overall development of farmers. Focus in agricultural loan should be given to all type of loan viz. Short term, mid -term and Long term loan. So short term loans will mitigates the short term needs of the farmers and others will build infrastructure and create sustainable course of income. Thereby farmers can bring in development and permanent source of income for themselves. REFERENCES 1. Live mint & The Wall Street Journal, 21 st December Rajgopal Deora, Co-operative Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra, September 2012, Loan, Subsidy & Farmers, Lokrajya,