Banks prefer women borrowers as their rate of repayment is higher. Yet over 80 per cent of women farmers are denied loans compared with 43 per cent for men. Is there a bias?
How can women, who are often the backbone of the rural economy, get more funding? This was the topic of a panel discussion titled ‘Seeds of funding’ at the businessline Agri & Commodity Summit 2026.
Anupam Gupta, CBO, Kissandhan; Ravi Kumar, Lead Smallholder farming, South Asia, Bayer AG; and Ajay Kumar Jha, Deputy General Manager, product development and marketing, SBI, discussed barriers to funding and how these could be overcome. The discussion was moderated by Subramani Ra Mancombu, Consulting Editor, businessline.
Published on March 2, 2026