The demand for crop loan in the current fiscal has been estimated at around Rs 9,500 crore.
The state government today discussed the issue of liquidity crunch at a meeting with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and NABARD Chairman Umesh Chandra Sarangi.
Maharashtra has a strong network of cooperative banks and 75 to 80 per cent crop loan is disbursed through these banks as well as primary credit cooperative societies.
In the last two financial years, crop loans in the range of Rs 6,000 crore-Rs 6,500 crore were disbursed. The number is likely to go up to Rs 9,500 crore as around 3 million farmers have become eligible for loans, said a senior state government official.
"If we wait for the procedure to be completed and the central government reimbursing the amount of loan waiver to the banks then we will have to wait till September. But by then, the Kharif season will be over and the farmers will get little benefit," the official pointed out.
"We asked NABARD to make liquidity available immediately to the cooperative banks," he said.
Both commercial and cooperative banks in the state are facing the problem of loan default during the 2007-08 fiscal and the amount defaulted could be around Rs 5,000 crore.
The percentage of recovery for cooperative banks is just around 10 per cent, while for commercial banks it is 10 to 30 per cent, he added.
