Subramani Ra Mankombu, Consulting Editor, business Line, Anupam Gupta, CBO, KisanDhan, Ravi Kumar, Lead Smallholder Farming, South Asia, Bayer AG and Ajay Kumar Jha, Deputy General Manager, Product Development & Marketing, SBI. Photo Courtesy: Bijoy Ghosh
Banks prefer women borrowers because they have higher repayment rates and yet more than 80 percent of women farmers are denied loans compared to 43 percent of men. Is there any prejudice? How can women, who are often the backbone of rural economies, get more money? This was the subject of a panel discussion titled ‘Seeds of Funding’ business Line Agri & Commodity Summit 2026 in which Anupam Gupta, CBO, KisanDhan, Ravi Kumar, Lead Smallholder Farming, South Asia, Bayer AG and Ajay Kumar Jha, Deputy General Manager, Product Development & Marketing, SBI discussed the funding constraints and how these can be overcome. The discussion was moderated by consulting editor Subramani Ra Mankombu. business Line.
structural issue
According to Ravi Kumar, it is structural issues rather than prejudice that prevent women from taking loans. “There is a lack of documentation and women are rarely able to deposit collateral as they do not own land. Moreover, financial literacy is also a challenge,” she said. He also said that the small size of the loan also often poses a challenge for lending organizations.
SBI’s Jha said the bank has always given very high status to women borrowers but the problem in giving loans to them was lack of land ownership. One way SBI addressed this issue was to motivate women farmers to move up the value chain from being mere producers to becoming processors. He said, if women are involved in the full value chain of agriculture from sowing to setting up processing units, it becomes easier for SBI to give loans as you do not need to show land ownership.
According to Anupam Gupta, KisanDhan had overcome the problem of lack of land ownership by giving loans through FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations). “We fund through FPOs and we have impacted the lives of 7 lakh farmers. There are more than 50,000 women in FPOs and many FPOs have only women members,” he said. He told that KisanDhan has presence in states like Rajasthan, MP, Odisha and Maharashtra.
Ravi Kumar said that when women farmers fail to get financial help from NBFCs and banks, they resort to borrowing from informal lenders at very high rates. “They do not get the right inputs from informal lenders and the high cost of farming affects their income,” he said.
way forward
The panel unanimously urged policy changes such as simplifying the KCC, showing generosity in collateral and designing specific products keeping in mind the needs and constraints of women borrowers.
Gupta advocated for building financial and digital literacy and empowering women farmers with mobile phones. “Social recognition needs to be given,” Ravi Kumar stressed. “Women should not be seen as laborers but as part of property ownership and given digital literacy,” she said.
SBI’s Jha said value addition is important for women farmers and there are several initiatives through which they can be beneficiaries. “Fifteen percent of our agriculture portfolio is sourced through self-help groups,” he said, adding that one of the largest amounts disbursed without any collateral was Rs 100 crore.
The panel concluded that there is a need to celebrate success stories of women farmers so that more women are inspired.
Published on February 27, 2026
