Impact of cooperative credit on the agriculture sector of Himachal Pradesh: A study of the mid-hill zone

The study of the impact of agricultural cooperative credit on agricultural inputs, land improvement, production and marketing of different holding groups is important for the assessment of credit utilisation. If the credit is utilised properly for the purpose for it was sanctioned, its impact that is, flow of benefits to the beneficiaries will help in improving their economic status. Food is a prime necessity of life, is an agricultural product and that the world is still so poor that it must devote a great part of its resources to the production of necessity. The utilisation pattern of loans reflects that only marginal farmers have shown the best results. Therefore, misuse of loans has been negligible in the case of marginal farmers and special schemes should be launched to further meet the financial needs of the marginal farmers. However, in terms of land improvement exceptions have been noticed in terms of larger farmers who make investments on land improvement. The coefficient of correlation between agricultural inputs and level of production reflects that there exists a perfect positive relationship between the two, but it is subject to marginal farmers only. The cooperative marketing societies are functioning under certain constraints which have hindered their growth. The main reasons are storage facilities and lack of local markets. However, of late, the government makes some efforts to locate the market in the local area, which further need to be disseminated to the clusters of two to three villages.