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such a sub-target for, amongst other poorer segments, small and marginal
farmers. The Committee explained its rationale in these words:
“Findings of the Committee indicate that small and marginal
farmers who constitute more than 80% of total farmer households in the
country face exclusion from the formal financial channels. Therefore,
a sub-target for small and marginal farmers within agriculture and
allied activities is recommended, equivalent to 9% of ANBC or CEOBE,
whichever is higher to be achieved in stages by 2015-16. Banks are
also encouraged to ensure that the number of outstanding beneficiary
accounts register a minimum annual growth rate of 15%. With this
dispensation, significantly large number of eligible and willing small
and marginal farmer households would have access to credit from
formal channels” (p.viii)
They have similarly coveredmicro and small enterprises, andother economically
weaker sections. The RBI has not accepted these recommendations and
explained its position in the following words:
“One important area where we have diverged from the views of the
Nair Committee is that we have not imposed any new targets under
the priority sector framework. The Nair Committee had recommended
certain additional sub-targets for credit to micro enterprises, small and
marginal farmers and realignment of certain existing targets. We have
consciously decided against this as we believe that fresh targets would
distort the allocation of credit” (Charkrabarty, October 2012, p.1822).
In the same spirit, RBI had taken pleasure in proposing that the interests of
small and marginal farmers and other individuals will be taken care by shifting
the direct part of agricultural loans to corporates, partnership firms and other
institutions to indirect agriculture – only to be rescinded soon in response to
pressures from banks. There is no doubt that the RBI’s policy perspectives are
sure to hurt eventually the interests of the small and marginal farmers. Also,
so long as banking institutions do not imbibe rather genuinely the imperatives
of broader social goals in bank lendings, there is no hope for deprived sections
of society.
H. Discrepancies in Agricultural Credit Data
For a study of the trends in agricultural credit in respect of scheduled
commercial banks which constitute the large and growing purveyor of credit,
there are two sources: first, there is the progress in agricultural credit published
in RBI publications and those published by the Government of India in its
Economic Survey each year, apparently based on special control returns filed
