The presence of the Project Officers of the Small Farmers Development Agencies here today is in my view a happy symbol of coordination. I have for some time been seriously concerned to find a way of bringing the small farmers who may not be enjoying the facilities available from cooperatives into contact with the commercial banks. I hope that the Project Officers of the Small Farmers Development Agencies will find a suitable answer to this problem and will guide the commercial banks into areas in which small farmers are today neither being adequately served by cooperatives nor by commercial banks. Full coordination between the SFDA authorities, the commercial banks and the cooperatives is necessary, and it must be on a continuing basis. We do not want just the illusory satisfaction of identifying a few thousand small farmers and leaving them to their own devices. We have to ensure purposeful coordination by the SFDAs with the cooperative and commercial banking sectors. Not just the small farmers but their actual credit needs must be identified and finance made available for them and to the suppliers of inputs. Marketing facilities must be provided to them so that they are not exploited by middlemen.
One last word again on the credit-gap I have mentioned: I am not now speaking of the gap between the demand for and supply of agricultural credit, but of the huge number of farmers who are not yet in touch with credit institutions. I appreciate the efforts made by the commercial banks to open new branches and secure fresh accounts. The village adoption scheme of the State Bank and other forms of integrated approach adopted by other banks are viewed with the closest attention by me. The scheme for financing by commercial banks of primary cooperative societies devised by the Reserve Bank — which, I am happy to see, is not afraid of innovation — has also produced satisfactory results in some areas. All these are steps in the right direction. But they will have to be increased if the majority of farmers is to be relieved of entire or almost entire dependence on non-regulated sources of credit. So specifically, I say to the trainees at the two cooperative courses of this College concluding today — and I hope this message will reach the other executives in the cooperatives all over the country — -devote far more energy to the spread of membership of the cooperatives under your control, giving the maximum possible attention to the smaller and less influential cultivators." If cooperative societies have become so bad that they must be liquidated, take the needful steps in this matter without delay, so that useless institutions are no longer allowed to clog the channels of credit. In their place create new societies by which genuine need — and not influence or privilege — will be served. I can safely say that in these efforts you will receive all the support you need from us.