Agriculture Minister Asks Banks To Ensure Timely, Easy Crop Loans

New Delhi: Stating that there should not be any delays in disbursement of crop loans, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday asked banks to take measures to ease the approval process to provide loans on time to farmers.

He also asked the banks to provide "hassle-free" loan facility by standardising documents required and connecting it with Jhan Dhan, Aadhar and mobile banking.

The government has set an agricultural credit target for banks at Rs 9 lakh crore for the current fiscal, up from Rs 8.5 lakh crore in 2015-16.

It is also providing short-term loan of up to Rs 3 lakh for a period of one year at a subsidised interest rate of 7 per cent under its scheme. And additional subvention of 3 per cent is given for those farmers who repay on time.

"There should not be delay in disbursement of crop loan to farmers. Banks should fasten the approval process so that farmers get ride of private moneylenders," Singh said in his valedictory speech at a NABARD event here.

Asserting that farmers should not get hassled up in bank process, the minister said, "Agriculture credit should be made available easily and timely, for which I request banks to standardise all documents required for sanctioning of loans."

He also asked the banks to connect crop loan with Jhan Dhan, Aadhar and mobile e-banking platform and ensure crop loans are sanctioned in a time-bound manner.

On doubling farmers' income by 2022, Singh said most of them were "surprised" when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this target and were also "sceptical" if this could be achieved in five years period.

"It is difficult, but not impossible to achieve. If we try and work together, this is achievable.... some think that increasing farmers income means raising the minimum support price (MSP), but MSP is one aspect," he added.

Besides MSP, the Modi government is looking at addressing fundamental issues like raising productivity not only of land, but water, fertiliser and all other inputs used in agriculture, he said, adding all schemes are announced keeping these issue in mind.

Farmers' income will increase when the cost of production comes down and productivity improves. The government is not only focusing on agriculture, but also allied activities like diary, poultry and fishery to boost farmers' income, the minister said said.