Institutional Credit and Agricultural Development in Odisha: Analysis of Recent Trends

Institutional credit to agriculture is of crucial importance to develop agriculture in a state like Odisha with a large number of marginal and small farmers. This study examines the trend and pattern of the flow of institutional credit to agriculture in the state along with the growth of the state economy and agricultural sector in recent years. Analysing secondary data, the study reveals that despite improvement in the flow of credit to agriculture, the state suffers from lower per hectare credit compared to all India average. Besides, there exists high degree of regional and size-class inequality in the distribution of agricultural credit in the state. However, the state agriculture has shown signs of better growth in recent years. Among the institutions, the Co-operatives are found accessible by the small holders, the study suggests improvement in operational efficiency of the Primary Agricultural Credit Co-operative Societies (PACS) by reduction ininter-district disparity in terms of area, population, and membership coverage.