Impact of Agricultural Credit on Employment Generation of the Farmers

Agricultural credit is the key factor to accelerate agricultural development in India. The credit needs of the farmers are of three kinds. Firstly, farmers need short-term credit to finance agricultural operations like purchase of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. Secondly, they need medium-term credit for purchase of ploughs, agricultural equipments, tractors and other implements to cultivate their lands with the help of modern implements. Thirdly, they need it for long-term agricultural development such as improvement of land, construction of boundaries and horticulture. To raise agricultural production, they will have to borrow more credit. This paper studies the impact of agriculture credit on employment generation of farmers by age, education, caste, size, occupation in delta area and non delta area in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. 200 farmers who borrowed loans from the bank during 2008-09 are selected randomly from sample branches and pre-tested schedules were canvassed among them. It can be observed that in the delta area the sample branches provided finance to the farmers more than to those in the non delta area. The male beneficiaries are more in number in both the delta and non delta area than female beneficiaries.