Flow of Institutional Credit to Agriculture : An Economic analysis in Union territory of Puducherry

The study examined the flow of institutional credit to agriculture in Union Territory of Puducherry. Puducherry and Karaikal district formed the universe of the study. The method of data collection was by personal interview, using a separate pretested schedule. The loans and advances made to agricultural sector in the state by each financing institutions showed a significant growth over the study period. The most important factor influencing the flow of crop loans was the land holding, HYV, fertilizer use, and bank branch expansion. The incremental capital output ratio had shown positive trend of efficiency of agricultural credit. The flow of agricultural loans and advances proved to have significant positive impact at state level. The significant effect was seen in the recovery performance of agricultural advances and profitability and thereby the viability of commercial banks. The ranking by garret scoring technique for reasons of mounting overdues indicated that the labour problem was main reason. Impact of agricultural credit lending programme was indicated that most of the farmers expressed the positive impact of the programme on the agricultural improvement.