Cooperative Credit Access and Rural Indebtedness among Tribal Households in Palghar District of Maharashtra

Abstract: Cooperative credit is a principal source of institutional finance for small and marginal farmers, yet its reach in tribal-dominated districts is poorly documented. This paper examines the performance of cooperative credit in Palghar district, Maharashtra, where Scheduled Tribes form 37.39 per cent of the population and 91.31 per cent of landholders are small or marginal, and discusses its implications for household indebtedness. Using secondary data from NABARD’s Potential Linked Credit Plan (PLP) 2022-23, the Census of India 2011 and the NSS 77th Round, the study analyses ground-level credit flow for 2018-19 to 2020-21 through percentage shares, achievement ratios, compound annual growth rates and credit-gap measures. Three findings stand out. First, cooperative banks achieved only 37.5 per cent of their cumulative Annual Credit Plan targets, against 71.9 per cent for commercial banks, and their share in district credit fell from 17.1 per cent to 8.5 per cent. Second, cooperative banks nevertheless supplied 47.6 per cent of agricultural credit in 2020-21, so their shortfall bears directly on farm households. Third, district crop-loan flow of about ₹149 crore in 2020-21 was roughly 27 per cent of the ₹561 crore potential estimated for 2022-23. Because no consistent district-level series on tribal household debt exists, the paper does not claim a causal link between cooperative credit and indebtedness. It identifies a credit-access gap that plausibly keeps vulnerable households dependent on informal sources and sets out a targeted policy agenda.