Nearly 12.35 lakh farmers in Karnataka have been provided with about ₹9,100 crore in farm loans through the cooperative sector this year so far, Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekar said on Sunday.
The State has set a target of lending ₹20,810 crore to about 30 lakh farmers this year. While Karnataka achieved 115% loan disbursement through DCC bank last year, it has set a target of achieving 125%.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, the Minister said the State Government was working towards providing loans to all farmers through various programmes. “The Government is trying to ensure that no farmer is inconvenienced. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has directed us to make farm loan disbursal efficient,” he said.
Achieving targets
Mr. Somashekar added, “We have reached 72.76% of the target in the month of October. Substantial success has been achieved in disbursal of short-term, medium-term, and long-term loans.”
Providing a break-up, the Minister said the Government has set a target of disbursing short-term loans of ₹19,370 crore to 30.25 lakh farmers, of whom 12.25 lakh have received ₹8,742 crore, which is about 45% of the target. For medium-term and long-term loan disbursal, a target has been set to provide about ₹1,440 crore to about 59,900 farmers, of whom about 10,000 have already received ₹395 crore. This is about 27.41 % of the annual target. “In all, a total of 12.35 lakh farmers have received ₹9,136 crore till October 23,” he said.
The Minister said that a total of 26.19 lakh farmers had received a total credit of ₹17,901 crore during 2020-21 as against the target of providing ₹15,802 crore credit to 25.12 lakh farmers. “However, due to intense monitoring and good work of 21 DCC banks, 115% of the target was achieved. I am confident of achieving the target and more this year too. We are focused on achieving 125% of the target.”
Mr. Somashekar also said that he would be convening a meeting of the CEOs of the DCC banks to review the performance and discuss the bottlenecks in their work to find solutions. Despite the COVID 19 pandemic and the tight financial condition of the Karnataka exchequer, the DCC banks and primary agriculture cooperative societies have been directed to ensure lending remain seamless to protect agricultural activities, he added.