Agriculture Finance by Commercial Bank : A case study of syndicate bank in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh

Financial arrangements and growth are intimately interlinked. As the economy grows and becomes more sophisticated, the banking sector has to develop pari passu in a manner that it supports and stimulates such growth. With increasing global integration, the Indian banking system and financial system have to be strengthened in a integrated manner. India has made some efforts to bring reforms in financial sector during last two decades. Agricultural credit is one of the most crucial inputs in all agricultural development programmes. For a long time, the major source of agricultural credit was the private money-lenders. This source of credit was inadequate and highly expensive and exploitative. Since independence, a multi-agency approach consisting of co-operatives, commercial banks and regional rural banks known as institutional credit has been adopted to provide cheaper and adequate credit to farmers. The major policy in the sphere of agricultural credit has been its progressive institutionalization for supplying agriculture and rural development programmes with adequate and timely flow to credit to assist weaker sections and less developed regions.