Bank Credit on the Income and Employment of Rural Farmers in India

Programmes of directed credit attempts to intervene in the way that banks allocate credit. Without government intervention, the bank will not allocate funds to those projects for which the social returns are the highest. Ever since the two rounds of nationalisation of major commercial banks in 1969 and 1980, directed credit has continued to be an integral part of monetary policy. The narashiman committee has recommended for phasing out of the directed credit programmes and widening the definition of credit to agriculture. In the case of India, the introduction of banking sector reforms discourages the directed credit after 1991 and widens the definition for the directed credit policies. This main goal of this book is to examine the quantitative importance of commercial bank credit to agriculture not only at a macroeconomic level but also includes the relevant institutions such as banks and the ultimate farmers' possible interactions between them. This book believes that it gives a better insight into the relative quantitative impact of changes in bank credit in emerging economy like India where the Directed Credit Policy Prevails.