PurposeThe objective of this study is to ascertain the financial literacy (FL) of the farmers in three South Asian economies (India, Bangladesh and Pakistan). Further, an effort was made to explore various demographic and socioeconomic antecedents of FL of the farmers.Design/methodology/approachThe study used secondary data of 11,025, 782 and 657 farmers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively from Financial Inclusion Insights (2017) database. “Big five” FL questions were used to measure the FL of the farmers. Appropriate statistical techniques and censored Tobit regression were used to identify the determinants of such FL.FindingsBangladeshi farmers (48.75%: Moderate) were found to exhibit greater FL as compared to Pakistani (38.96%: Poor) and Indian (32.61%: Poor) farmers. The outcome of the study revealed that the farm ownership and educational attainment of the farmers significantly determined FL of the farmers in all three Asian countries. Financial confidence and gender were observed to exacerbate a positive influence on the level of FL of farmers belonging to India and Pakistan. Age, marital status, financial inclusion and economic status were found to be the major determinants of FL of Indian farmers.Originality/valueThere is a dearth of studies in the scholarship examining the FL of farmers in both developed and developing economies. The present study makes an original contribution to the literature by unearthing FL amongst farmers and its determinants in three South Asian economies using a large sample of 12,464 farmers for the first time.Peer reviewThe peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2022-0776

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