A Study on The Socio-Economic Impact of Availing Microfinance Among Farmers of Punjab

Microfinance has ever since its introduction been an essential and significant tool of economic empowerment of the people out of the net of formal credit system. At present, realizing the importance of micro finance, various organizations, both formal and informal have been involved actively in supporting with finances through their sources. The current research paper emphasizes upon the socio-economic benefit of availing microfinance, particularly to farmers, in the state of Punjab. Variables to measure economic impact include increase in income, savings and investment while variables like education, health and societal relations have been used to measure social impact. ANOVA has been applied to study whether there is any significant difference in the benefits of availing microfinance derived by the people of varied income status and of varying duration of availing microfinance. The study concludes that though the benefits derived are same among people of differing income status, there is some deviation in the benefits with respect to duration of microfinance. For beneficiaries who are availing microfinance for more than 5 years, the socio-economic impact is greater and positive, while it is comparatively lesser for people availing microfinance for lesser duration. The research paper aims to highlight the significance of microfinance on farmers in Punjab and acts as a base for further research in the area.