A Study Of Role Of Private Sector Banks In Employment Generation Through Agriculture Credit In Maharashtra State With Special Reference To Pune District: - An Analytical Study.

Abstract

Farming is one of the major employment providers and rural growth in India especially in such states as Maharashtra. This paper researches the subject of how the banks in the private sector contribute to the generation of employment by providing agricultural credit, particularly in the Pune district. The study will also focus on examining the impact of the credit that is supplied by the private banks on the farm and allied agricultural investment, productivity, and the creation of employment opportunities. Using a constructed analytical framework, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyzes both the direct and indirect correlations between variables like access to credit, agricultural investment, productivity as well as financial literacy and employment generation. Farmers and agripreneurs were used as primary sources of data, and through a structured questionnaire, with the backing of secondary information through institutional reports as well as banking statistics. The results indicate that the bank credit in the private sector has an important positive influence on the investment in agriculture; this further increases the productivity and the work place. The other mediating variable described in the study is the financial literacy and credit utilization efficiency, and the moderating factor is the institutional support, infrastructure, and government policies. The comparative analysis shows that the private sector banks are more efficient, faster in delivery of credit and are more integrated with technology but still have low reach to the rural areas as compared to the public sector banks. Moreover, credit programs that serve other industries included in the allied programs like dairy, poultry, and agribusiness have stronger potential of creating employment compared with the conventional crop loans. The paper finds that by increasing the involvement of the private sector banks in the agricultural credit as well as supporting the policy interventions and financial inclusion, there is a high potential to increase the employment opportunities and lead to sustainable rural development..