Credit and Farmers in a North Indian Village

Abstract

Y.K. Alagh (2003) states that globalization, as a new policy of economic reforms, has been accepted in India during the last 15 years (since 1991). After accepting it various sections of people faced various problems especially the poor, the marginal farmers and the labourers. It is claimed that this new wave of globalization or the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the national context, provides liberty for participation in open economy. New Economic Policy initiated by the government of India in 1991 has, in brief, the following components: Globalization, Privatization, and Liberalization (LPG), among them globalization extends its area of influence and vastly encompassing all spheres of life, industry to agriculture. There has been a paradigm shift in the Indian Economic Policy from state oriented developmental strategies to market oriented strategies of development, and from micro-finance to livelihood finance. Livelihood finance is a comprehensive approach to promoting sustainable livelihoods for the poor farmers. The special measures have also been taken-up for agriculture sector during the process of globalization. These are infrastructure development, agricultural credit, agricultural marketing and crop insurance to say a few.