Evolution of agriculture finance in India: a historical perspective
ISSN: 0002-1466
Article publication date: 4 May 2018
Issue publication date: 14 May 2018
Abstract
Purpose
Lack of access to finance is one of the major contributing to low profitability in agriculture. Various policy interventions were performed for promoting access to finance. However, access to finance always remained one of the biggest challenges to Indian policymakers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the policy interventions in the areas of agriculture finance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper makes an attempt to explore the relation of earlier policy initiatives with the current microfinance industry as well. The data for the paper are collected from Reserve Bank of India Archive Museum at Pune. This Museum is having huge collection of archives of policy documents of the Indian financial sector and is one of its kinds in India.
Findings
The study concludes that many of the interventions of today were earlier experimented or proposed in the past but, due to some or the other reason those, interventions were not successful. The study concludes that if those interventions had been implemented that time, it would have taken India in one of the tops in the list of financial inclusion.
Originality/value
This paper is a unique in its feature as it has tried to link the evolution of agriculture finance and the microfinance industry of India as microfinance is an integral part of agricultural finance in India.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the support of all the staff of RBI Archive Museum in collecting data for this study.
Citation
Bharti, N. (2018), "Evolution of agriculture finance in India: a historical perspective", Agricultural Finance Review, Vol. 78 No. 3, pp. 376-392. https://doi.org/10.1108/AFR-05-2017-0035
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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