Bank Finance and Rural Livelihood: An Impact Analysis in Papumpare district of Arunachal Pradesh

Finance is the life blood of any economy. There are many sources of finance for economic activities. The bank finance is one of the important factors for enhancing rural livelihood. Agriculture is one of the major sources of sustainable livelihood in rural areas. Two third of rural population depends on agriculture and lives in abject poverty. Nationalisation of commercial banks marked the beginning of social banking in rural areas. It provided provision of institutional credit at moderate rates of interest to needy farmers. Rapid expansion of bank branches has a positive effect on rural farm and non-farm output, income and employment which helped farmers to avail services and credit facilities and a variety of loan for meeting their production needs. It provides them the opportunities to diversify various non-farm productive activities such as such as rearing of livestock, Horticulture/Plantation, Dairy/Fishery, etc. Thus, promotes sustainable rural livelihood in the study area. The bank has also changed their approach from just being lenders to building up relationship banking with the borrowers, and encourages the habit of thrift and efficient utilisation of financial resources needs to be also enhanced among the farmers. Hence, through these efforts commercial banks enabling better healthcare, sanitation facilities at workplaces and home, and to promote an education for all as given top priority for rapid rural development. The present paper is an attempt to analyse the impact of bank finance on agricultural and its allied activities of rural people in Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh.