Observing that the Indian agriculture sector has been growing, the Economic Survey 2022-23 said Tuesday it needs “re-orientation” in view of challenges like adverse impacts of climate change, fragmented landholdings, and rising input costs. The other challenges are fragmented landholdings, sub-optimal farm mechanisation, low productivity, disguised unemployment and rising input costs.
The Economic Survey 2023 presented in Parliament on January 31 said the agriculture credit flow was about 13 per cent more than the target of Rs 16.5 lakh crore in 2021-22. The target for the flow of credit to agriculture for 2022-23 had been fixed at Rs 18.5 lakh crore.
The survey said that as a result of the initiatives and measures taken to strengthen existing policies, there has been a consistent increase in the agriculture credit flow over the years, exceeding the target every year for the past several years.
As of December 30, 2022, banks issued Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to 38.9 million eligible farmers with a KCC limit of Rs 4,51,672 crore, the report noted.
"While Indian agriculture has performed well, the sector needs re-orientation in the backdrop of certain challenges...," it said. Stating that the performance of the agriculture sector remains critical to growth and employment in the country, the Survey said investment in the sector must be encouraged through an affordable, timely and inclusive approach to credit delivery.
It may be noted that more than 75 per cent of rural female workers are employed in the agriculture sector. This implies a need to upskill and create employment for women in agriculture-related sectors such as food processing.
"Here, the self-help groups (SHGs) can play a crucial role in shaping rural women's potential into concrete developmental outcomes of financial inclusion, livelihood diversification, and skill development," the Survey said.