Agriculture Sector Credit and Output Relationship in Nepal

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out the condition of priority of commercial banks to provide loans to the agricultural sector and to find the relationship and impact of agricultural loans to the agricultural GDP of Nepal.

Objectives: This study aims to compare the condition of loan disbursements in agricultural and manufacturing sectors. It further aims to compare loan percent with growth and contribution to the GDP of the agricultural and industrial sectors and tries to show the impact of agricultural loans to the agricultural GDP of Nepal.

Methods: It was based on a descriptive and analytical research design. Statistical tools standard deviation, correlation, regression, etc. are used and Excel, and EViews software are used for the statistical calculations. Statistical calculations and graphs are simultaneously used to show and compare the condition of variables.

Results: Commercial banks give higher priority to the manufacturing sector for loans than the agricultural sector. The Johansen Co-integration test indicates no long-run relationship between loans of commercial banks and agricultural output in Nepal. However, the least-squares method, it indicates that a positive causal relationship between agricultural loans and agricultural growth.

Implications: The loans of commercial banks directly stimulate the growth of agriculture but the amount of growth is less noticeable. Thus, it is concluded that the commercial bank's loan alone cannot affect and control the growth of the agricultural sector of the Nepalese economy therefore the government should increase its expenditure on the agricultural sector.