Given that private sector is the major driver of the capital formation and that rate of investment in agriculture, which presently hovers around 20 per cent need to be sustained and in fact raised further, there is a need to give immediate attention to long-term agricultural credit.
The issue of sharp decline in project based lendings spearheaded earlier by the NABARD also needs urgent attention for improving share of longterm credit. The key thrust areas of such schematic lendings will have to be in areas like production and marketing of protein foods, vegetables & fruits, organic farming, supply chain management and farm mechanization.