Accessing financial credit for economic development is a challenging task for smallholder farmers of our country. Formal institutions do not have appropriate credit facilities for the smallholders. Farmers are forced to lend money from informal or middlemen on inflated interest rates.

Smallholder farmers of Tripura have the potential to scale up their economic activities, but they lack finances. Jan Unnayan Samiti Tripura (JUST), one of the active partners of FARM Northeast programme has made the successful effort in filling this gap by linking the NABARD Financial Services Limited, (NABFINS) with the community.

NABFINS is a subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) with equity participation from NABARD. The main objective of the company is to provide credit and other facilities for promotion, expansion, commercialization, and modernization of agriculture and allied activities.

NABFINS in collaboration with JUST conducted a survey to check the eligibility and granted small loans to few groups on a pilot basis.  As per the agreement, all the groups repaid the amount on time. Since 2017, JUST has built a good linkage with NABFINS and managed to avail the loan for more than 250 farmers

Karna Debbarma, a member of Hamari Farmer’s Club from Radhanagar Para used to cultivate one crop in a year but after receiving a loan of Rs 40,000 from NABFINS in the year 2018, he started cultivating ladyfinger, maize, tomato, potato, and other seasonal crops. “I am happy that earning at least Rs. 7,000 to 12,000 every month from my field and I can repay back my loan regularly without any problem from the income I get from my field”, says Karna. Karna along with his wife are experiencing the change today with their income going higher from what it used to be.

So far, 12 Farmer’s Clubs and 42 Joint Liability Groups have benefited from NABFINS loans amounting Rs.   1, 10, 05,000/- and repaid Rs. 54, 77,896/-. The loan amount helped the farmers to start different business activities, such as farming vegetable cultivation for sale, livestock rearing, petty shops, etc.

This NABFINS loan has brought tremendous changes in the life of the people and now sustainability can be ensured as they have taken up different business activities at a larger level. Smallholders constitute 80% of farmers in India and the credit facilities for them are too meager. The local commercial banks also need to open credit facilities for smallholder to support the sector and smallholders at large.