Authors: Research Scholar Krishna Shil, Professor Alok Sen
Abstract: The study explores and examines the access, distribution, dependency and determinants of formal agricultural credit among paddy cultivators in selected villages of Tripura. The study is based on primary data collected from 370 paddy cultivating farm households across eight selected villages of Sepahijala and South Tripura districts of Tripura. This research work analyses the distribution of borrowers and formal agriculture credit across villages and farm size categories and assesses farmers' dependency on formal credit. The findings suggest recognisable variation informal credit access across villages and farm sizes. The study further identifies and confirms the factors influencing access to formal credit using Binary Probit Model. The explanatory variables incorporate landholding patterns, asset ownership, irrigation status, educational attainment, caste status, HYV cultivation, age, family size and household labour availability. The probability of accessing formal credit is significantly influenced by the farmers' productive resources, agriculture intensity, human capital and household characteristics, derived from the results. The findings show the existence of variations in formal credit access and emphasize the need for more inclusive and accessible agriculture credit availability in the study area.
