It is against this setting that I stress the value of training programmes such as the ones being carried out at this institution. It is no use talking of extension of increased credit to cooperative banks if their executives are not guided as to the proper management of credit assistance from Reserve Bank of India and other resources. " Proper management" includes not only the planning of lending programmes but also the proper economic and technical evaluation of the purpose for which credit is being asked and finally methods of supervising its proper utilisation. I understand that several of the courses at the Reserve Bank's College deal with the methods of evaluation of individual farmer's credit needs and of securing the optimum returns to the economy from agricultural credit dispensed by the cooperatives. I hope that what the trainees have learnt and will learn at courses at this college will be put into practice, and the knowledge acquired here will in turn be disseminated amongst their junior collegues in their parent institutions.
There is another aspect of agricultural financing that I would like to refer to. It relates to the entry of the nationalised banks into this sphere. I have heard many anxious comments as to whether this will not threaten the cooperative structure that already exists. My answer is no. Firstly, it is almost impossible for the cooperatives to meet the credit-gap that I have just indicated. Secondly, the commercial banks are entering the field of agricultural finance not in competition for a highly lucrative avenue for investment but only in the spirit of fulfilling a long felt need. There is, therefore, no doubt whatsoever that agricultural credit extension by the commercial banks should prove in effect to be complementary to cooperative lending. It should, to that extent, relieve the cooperative structure of excess demand pressure to which it has been subjected for too long. With close coordination and collaboration between the cooperative and commercial banks, I am sure we will be able to achieve a better coverage of farmers both area-wise and need-wise. Close coordination between cooperative and commercial banks is a vital necessity if wasteful overlap is to be avoided and neglected areas are to be covered. Joint participation in courses such as the one at this College will greatly assist them to move hand in hand towards the common national objectives of improving the lot of the farmers generally and especially that of the smaller cultivators.
