After Rs 36,000-cr waiver, Yogi govt eyes Rs 41,600-cr crop loan disbursal

State also aims to disburse over 4.7 mn Kisan Credit Cards to help farmers buy inputs

Even as the Uttar Pradesh cabinet has already announced crop loan waiver of over Rs 36,000 crore, the Yogi Adityanath-led state government has now set a target of disbursing over Rs 41,610 crore as fresh crop loans to farmers in the 2017 kharif season.
 
The government is also aiming to disburse over 4.7 million Kisan Credit Cards to help farmers avail loans for input procurement.
 
Uttar Pradesh is targetting to double farmers’ income over the next five years and agriculture is one of the priority areas for Yogi. The sector had also found ample mention in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) pre-poll manifesto.

 

In its inaugural state cabinet meeting on April 4, the Yogi cabinet had announced crop loan wavier of Rs 30,729 crore. An additional Rs 5,630 crore was announced to be written off in non-performing assets (NPA) accumulated by banks in the agricultural sector. Thus, the total relief amounted to Rs 36,359 crore, benefitting 8.6 million farmers in the state.
 
Under the scheme, the Yogi government waived crop loans pertaining to small and marginal farmers up to Rs 1,00,000. Writing off the agricultural sector NPAs was projected to benefit 7,00,000 farmers. This would not only enable them to prospectively seek fresh crop loans, but also clean up the distressed accounts of banks. The Yogi government would float Farmers’ Relief Bond to provide for the loan wavier.

 
There are about 23 million farmers in UP, of which about 92.5 per cent, or roughly 21.5 million belong to the small and marginal segments.
 
Meanwhile, the state government has set a target of 9.16 million hectares of acreage in the current 2017 kharif cropping season. Likewise, it is targetting about 5 per cent increase in the kharif production from 18.51 million tonnes in 2016 to 19.46 million tonnes this year.
 
Of the kharif crop, the paddy crop is estimated to clock 5.6 per cent higher production in 2017 to 15.13 million tonnes from 14,39 million tonnes in 2016, although paddy acreage is not likely to rise, thus indicating better yield.

 
He has directed officials for effective implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojana, so that the farmers could be benefited.
 
UP agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi said the government was taking steps to ensure adequate availability of fertilisers to farmers in the kharif season. The state has set a target of 2.6 million tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes of urea and Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) respectively, besides 200,000 tonnes of another soil nutrient, potashic. Besides, the state would distribute 1.75 million organic fertiliser packets to farmers.
 
Meanwhile, close on the heels of Yogi’s visit to Jhansi district, the government has announced digging of 1,000 ponds in the arid zone of Bundelkhand. The ponds, which would be dug by June, would serve as water reservoirs for both human consumption and irrigation during the summer months. Bundelkhand receives less rainfall compared to other regions, although the rainfall last year was better compared to the previous several seasons.

 
Bundelkhand region, that spans adjacent districts in UP and Madhya Pradesh, comprises seven districts of UP viz. Lalitpur, Jhansi, Jaluan, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda and Chitrakoot.