Agricultural credit and productivity of crops in India: field evidence from small and marginal farmers across social groups

Purpose This work examines the impact of institutional agricultural credit on crop productivity of some major crops such as paddy, cotton, wheat and pulses for small and marginal farmers across various social groups. Design/methodology/approach The cross-sectional field data on socio economic variables was collected from three Indian states from about 400 small and marginal farmers across various social groups using multi-stage stratified random and purposive sampling through a structured questionnaire by interviewing. The method of propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to calculate average treatment effect (ATE) and average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) by categorising sample farmers as treatment group and control group where crop productivity was considered as outcome variable and access to institutional credit was considered as treatment variable. Findings The PSM estimates reveal that ATE and ATET for all the selected crops are found to be significantly higher for the treated group vis-a-vis non-treated group suggesting that institutional agricultural credit has a statistically and significant positive impact on the crop productivity. Research limitations/implications Similar study can be extended for more crops and across regions in India for a universal coverage. Originality/value The agricultural credit policy of India has been to increase the access and availability of institutional farm credit. This has led to in general increase in the flow of formal farm credit to agricultural sector. However, the impact of institutional credit and crop productivity especially for small and marginal farmers across social groups is not well recognized in India using field data. Accordingly, this field data study contributes to the existing research by providing fresh evidence from field across social groups for both kharif and rabi crops using recent survey data from small and marginal farmers which has important policy implications.