WORKABLE AND EFFECTIVE WAYS AND MEANS OF INCREASING AGRICULTURE ADVANCE

It is estimated that India will have a population of about 137 crores by 2025 and about 400 million tonnes of food grains would be needed to feed this population. It would therefore be necessary to plan agriculture development on sustainable basis. India has about 100 million operational holdings and about 70% of farmers have land holdings less than 2 hac. It is therefore necessary to evolve a technology, which would increase the productivity of small holdings and maintain ecological balance. For agriculture to be successful, many inputs are required. These are quality seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, good management, and good rainfall at the right time OR availability of irrigation etc. In addition to the above, one of the important input for agriculture is the availability of financial assistance from formal financing institutions at the right time. Here the role of Bankers is very important. Lending to agriculture can be in rural, semi urban, urban and also in metro areas. Lot of scope and potentiality lies at all places and these have to be identified and capitalized particularly for investment credit. In order to boost agriculture productivity, farmers need access to affordable and timely credit facilities. Keeping in view of the importance of Agriculture Advance in the interest of the Bank as well as country as a whole, this project has come out with implementable and actionable approach to increase Agriculture advance in banks.