The Role of Credit Co-Operatives in the Agricultural Development of Andhra Pradesh, India

Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) is basically anagrarian economy and is known as “Granary of the South” by producing one-tenthof India’s total output of food grains. Initially the agriculturists dependmore on non-institutional sources for their credit requirements which used tosqueeze the blood of the poor peasants by charging high rates of interest.Hence adequate and timely credit to the farmers on liberal terms becomes Sinequa non. Cooperatives are considered as the agencies for mobilization anddevelopment of rural resources in a planned and cost effective manner besidesproviding inputs, services and marketing facilities to the rural economy. InAndhra Pradesh, Credit Co-operatives are playing a significant role in servingthe needy farmers by fulfilling their credit requirements. On this backdrop, anattempt is made to analyze its role in the agricultural development of thestate. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of CreditCooperatives by analyzing its deposits, credit and impact of credit on the beneficiaries.In the state,Co-operatives are functioning in most efficient manner by providing adequate,cheap and timely credit to agricultural sector. These are providing not onlycredit, but also non-credit services for all activities under primary, secondaryand tertiary sectors of rural economy. Through cooperative credit the farmersbenefitted to maximum extent by increasing their agricultural output which inturn increased their levels of employment and income. Hence it can be concludedthat cooperative credit has become a powerful tool in the agriculturaldevelopment of the state.