evidence: All through the last decade and more, farm credit targets were surpassed. The government has been trying to address the persisting regional imbalances by ensuring strong credit flows to the agriculture sector, the growth rates of which have been satisfactory in most of recent years, except 2023-24. The credit target is going to be kept at a relatively low level in FY25 in the wake of the apprehension whether the credit to the sector is skewed towards boosting crop production, without pushing infrastructure creation to the desired extent. [...] The regional disparity in the credit flow to agriculture sector persisted last fiscal too, with Rs 12.5 trillion of the total loans going to five southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In fact, the share of four southern states in farm credit rose steadily from 42.6% in 2017-18 to 5-.5% in 2023-24. These states accounts for only 17% of the gross cropped area.