Comm. banks' FY06 farm lending: Rs 1 lakh cr

 The government had set a target of Rs 87,200 crore for disbursement of loans to the farm sector, as part of its push to double credit to the farm sector in 3 years beginning FY06.

The public sector banks (PSBs) disbursed a total of Rs 91,234 crore, while the private sector banks provided loans of Rs 25,136 crore. The FY06 target for lending to agriculture by commercial banks was fixed during a meeting chief executives of public sector banks had with finance minister, P Chidambaram, in June 2005.

Including other financial intermediaries like co-operative banks and regional rural banks, the agricultural lending target for FY06 was Rs 1,41,500 crore. In FY07, all banks are expected to increase agricultural
disbursements to Rs 1,75,000 crore and add 50 lakh more farmers to their portfolios.

During FY06, public sector banks alone financed 43 lakh new farmers,
issued 38 lakh kisan credit cards and financed setting up of 860
agri-clinics.

Government-owned banks also provided Rs 12,175 crore for financing
8,95,288 new investment projects in the agricultural sector.