'Credit flow to agri-sector up 70.69%'

The credit flow to the crucial agriculture sector went up 70.69% to Rs 62,799 crore till October this year as against Rs 36,792 crore disbursed up to September 2003.

"With government's emphasis on increasing agricultural credit flow into rural areas, there has been a significant improvement in credit flow situation," agriculture miniter Sharad Pawar said at the state agriculture and horticulture ministers' conference today.

"We hope this tempo would be kept up, for which the support of the states would be essential," Pawar said.

Agriculture ministry is in touch with finance ministry to raise the prepayment period of rescheduled loans to nine years including a three-year moratorium period for plantation and horticulture crops.

The commerical banks have also been advised to implement one time settlement scheme for old loan accounts of small and marginal farmers.

These measrues cumulatively should have a positive effect on the well-being of the farmers and on agriculture growth, in general, Pawar added.

Pawar asked Nabard to work along with RBI in order to evolve a mechanism so that the farm loans could be accessed at 6-7% rates similar to that housing and car loans.