Relief package for pomegranate, grape growers soon

The Karnataka government will soon send a request to the Central government for announcing a special relief package to bail out pomegranate and grape growers from the distress. The farmers have suffered severe losses to their crop last year between 2004 and 2009.

“The horticulture department is preparing a detailed report and send it to the cabinet for approval very soon. Once the cabinet approves the proposal it will be sent to government for India,” said G V Krishna Rau, additional chief secretary and development commissioner.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of 127th State-level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) here today, he said the horticulture department was yet to finalise the details of the relief package.

The banks have extended a combined Rs 687 crore loans to pomegranate and grape growers in the state.

The Karnataka government has constituted an inter-departmental committee under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary and development commissioner to evolve a suitable package. The committee met on various dates and deliberated threadbare on the proposed package, said Sudhir Kumar Jain, chairman and managing director, Syndicate Bank.

Delivering a keynote address at the SLBC meeting, he said the department of horticulture was advised to ascertain the affected districts and determine the crisis period. Accordingly, the department has furnished the names of affected districts and supplied district-wise list of affected farmers under both pomegranate and grape to the respective lead district managers (LDMs).

The provisional consolidated data gathered from LDMs concerned had been submitted to the state government for needful action. The chairman of inter-departmental committee suggested the department of horticulture to put up a comprehensive note to take the issue with the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India for issuing necessary guidelines to the banks in the state for this special package, Jain, who is also the chairman of SLBC, said.

Pomegranate growers have lost their crop between April 2004 and March 2009. The affected areas are located in the districts of Koppal, Raichur, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Belgaum, Bellary, Gulbarga, Yadgir, Bidar, Gadag, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Chikkaballapur. Grape growers had been affected in 11 of the 14 districts except Davanagere, Chitradurga and Chikkaballapur.

The SLBC after the second core committee meeting held on February 17, 2014, informed that banks could not levy below the base rate according to the extant guidelines (majority of the banks have 10.25 per cent as base rate at present).