Abstract This study empirically evaluates financial inclusion among India's small and marginal farmers (SMFs) and its influence on agricultural income and production, integrating the most recent government data through 2024-25. An OLS regression with IV/2SLS robustness is performed on 1,500 farm household observations across 15 states using secondary data from NABARD NAFIS 2021-22, RBI Annual Reports 2024-25, PMJDY MIS Portal (August 2025), PMFBY Dashboard, Economic Survey 2024-25, and Union Budget 2025-26 documents. Key statistics include: PMJDY accounts surpassed 56.2 crore; KCC loan disbursal doubled to ₹10.05 lakh crore (7.72 crore farmers); PMFBY paid ₹1.65 lakh crore in claims to 18.52 crore farmers over eight years; and the RBI Financial Inclusion (FI) Index reached 67.0 in March 2025 (up from 43.4 in 2017). Formal credit access (β=0.328), KCC (β=0.291), insurance (β=0.204), and digital banking (β=0.176) all considerably increase farm revenue, according to regression results. An accelerating policy push is indicated by the ₹2.1 lakh crore agriculture allocation, the ₹20 lakh crore agricultural loan objective, and the growth of the Jan Samarth-based KCC in the 2025-2026 Union Budget. However, structural hurdles necessitate focused measures, especially collateral limits (64.7%), insufficient financial literacy (59.3%), and gaps in digital access.
K. et al. (Thu,) studied this question.