Govt disburses Rs. 89,000 crore agro credit

New Delhi : Agriculture credit of Rs. 89, 687 crore has been disbursed to farmers across the country till June 2010 in 2010-11 as against credit flow target of Rs.375,000 crore.

Credit disbursement in 2009-10 was to the tune of Rs. 366,919 crore (provisional figures) against the target of Rs.325,000 crore.

The flow of agriculture credit since 2003-04 has consistently exceeded the target. Agriculture credit flow has gone up from Rs. 86,981 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 366,919 crore in 2009-10.

From Kharif 2006-07, farmers are receiving crop loans upto a principal amount of Rs.3 lakh at 7% rate of interest. In 2009-10, an additional 1% interest subvention was provided to those farmers who repaid their short term crop loans as per schedule.

The subvention rate for timely repayment of crop loans has been raised from 1% to 2% from the current fiscal thus bringing down the effective rate of interest for such farmers to 5% p.a. The limit of collateral free farm loan has also been increased from Rs.50,000 to Rs.1,00,000 .

As part of government initiative to provide Kisan Credit Card to all the eligible and willing farmers in a time bound manner 9.48 crore KCCs have been issued upto June, 2010.

The state governments have been advised to launch an intensive branch/village level campaign to cover all eligible and willing farmers.