Discuss the importance of credit in rural development.

Credit in rural development is important in the following ways:

1. To realise higher productivity in agriculture adequate credit is required by agriculturist.

2. The timely availability of credit helps in enhancing the confidence of the farmer as there is time gap between crop sowing and realisation of income after production.

3. Credit from government agencies helps in relieving the farmers from the burden of local moneylenders and traders. That provides strong base for an efficient growth of agriculture sector.

4. More than two-thirds of India's population depends on agriculture. It is only the credit and marketing facilities that can help them to meet not only their personal expenditures (marriages, ceremonies, other rituals etc.) but also productive expenditures.

5. Credit enables the farmers to have faith in themselves as Indian agriculture, even after fifty nine years of independence, is still dependent on the vagaries of monsoons.