Digital micro lending in agriculture

Abstract

Even though the share of the agricultural sector in the GDP has decreased over the years, agriculture still employs more than 42% of the Indian workforce. Despite governments efforts, more than 60% of the Indian farmers depend on the Informal credit system for agriculture. The credit is necessary for the farmers for buying agriculture inputs, machinery, land, and other agriculture needs, including their personal needs. Investment in agriculture 1s considered as a risky proposition due to the uncertainty involved and low historical returns. Also, there are no platforms or models currently available for investors to invest in agriculture. Through this project, we are looking at how an effective and efficient credit system can be developed for farmers with reducing the risk for the banks/ NBFC and how the farmers could get easy access to credit and overcome some of the current challenges they are experiencing.