Department of Economics, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Educaion for Women, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
Online published on 10 April, 2015.
The small and marginal farmers constitute 80 percentage of the operational holdings and cultivate nearly 36 percentage of the area in India. Due to their small holdings, they are disadvantageously placed with respect to their access to technology, capital, credit and other institutional support. (Annapoorani and Gandhimathi).
Hence to cater the credit need of the weaker sections such as small and marginal farmers, the Self Help Group linkage programme was introduced in 1992 by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. The idea of introducing the Self Help Group programme was initiated from the successful experiences of other countries. The linkage programme under National Bank for Agriculture and Rual Development aims to reach those outside the network of formal credit, improve living standards of poorer sections of rural society and achieve high deposit – credit mobilisation and recovery of loans.
The number of self help groups linked with banks had increased from 255 in 1992–1993 to 1609586 in 2008 – 2009. The bank loan through self help group and the refinance assistance had also shown an increasing trend. The bank loan was amounted to Rs.122.54 billion in 2008 -2009 through self help group. The amount of refinance availed through National Bank for Agriculture and Rual Development was Rs. 26.20 billion in 2008 -2009 (Hand Book of Indian Economy, 2009). In this back drop, an attempt was made to study the socio economic background of Self Help group farmer borrowers and Self Group non borrowers in Salem district of Tamilnadu. To conclude, on an average, the average farm income, savings and consumption expenditure of Non-Self Help Group borrowers was higher than the Self Help Group borrowers. Farm income, savings and consumption expenses had differed significantly between Self Help Group and non Self Help Group members. In the present study, the income, savings and consumption expenditure of non self help group borrowers was higher than the self help group borrowers. It was on account of that most of the farmers in non self help group were the medium and large farmers.
