By IANS
New Delhi : The quantum of loans available to farmers from the rural branches of scheduled financial agencies in 2006-07 registered a remarkable growth, said Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar here Friday.
A total of Rs.2.29 trillion ($57 billion) was disbursed in 2006-07 against Rs.1.80 trillion in 2005-06 as farm loans for the development of agriculture from the branches co-operative bank, regional rural banks (RRBs) and other commercial banks, Pawar told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
“The ground level credit disbursement by all agencies for agriculture has increased from over Rs.1.25 trillion in 2004-05 to Rs.2.29 trillion in 2006-07,” Pawar said.
He also rejected reports that the farmers were not getting benefits of the packages announced by the government from time to time.
Pawar added that the government in 2006 announced a rehabilitation package for farmers in 26 districts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, where “maximum suicides by farmers were reported.”
“The interest on overdue loans amounting to over Rs.37.3 billion as on July 1, 2006 have been waived off in these 31 distressed districts. The farmers with no past interest burden as on that date became eligible for fresh loans from the banking system,” he said.