Finance Minister P Chidambaram re-iterated the UPA Government's commitment to agriculture when he
announced a 22% increase in agricultural lending target to Rs 700,000 crore for banks in 2013-14. He also increased the allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture by 22% to Rs 27,049 crore. Reserve Bank of India (India’s Central Bank) Governor D Subbarao, while
presenting the 3rd Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2012-13 in February 2013 revealed that bank credit to industry has decelerated while credit to agriculture (mainly short-term loans to small and marginal farmers) has increased. Agriculture credit targets have nearly doubled (86%) in the last four years, i.e. from Rs 375,000 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 700,000 crore in 2013-14. While credit disbursed has always exceeded the target, it was over by Rs 93,000 crore in 2010-11: So, as against a target of Rs 375,000 crore, the disbursement was a whopping Rs 468,291 crore.
Figure 1 According to
data released by the Ministry of Statistics, agriculture GDP at current prices in 2011-12 was Rs 14,17,366 crore, an increase of 11.6% from Rs 12,69,888 crore in 2010-11. It accounted for 17% of total GDP of Rs 82,32,652 crore. Agriculture constituted 21% of GDP in the third quarter of the current year - Rs 517,439 crore out of total GDP of Rs 24,63,775 crore at current prices. And here is a key data point as to why the Government may be keen to impress the farmers –Minister of State for Labour & Employment Kodikunnil Suresh told the Upper House Rajya Sabha
recently that a survey carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation in the year 2009-2010 showed total employment in both organised and unorganised sector in India stood at 465 million. Mr Suresh said: "Out of this, about 28 million were in the organised sector and the balance 437 million in the unorganised sector. Out of 437 million workers in the unorganised sector, 24