Chhattisgarh government has disbursed about Rs 1272 crore to farmers in the state as farm loan at a nominal rate of interest of one per cent per annum.
The credit disbursement to the farmers is about 75 per cent of the target set by the state government for distributing loan in the current kharif session 2012-13. The loan disbursement under a state government scheme started from April 1.
“Till now, loans to the tune of Rs 1272.43 crore had been disbursed to the farmers in the state,” officials with the cooperative department said. The amount is about Rs 358.43 crore more than the loan disbursed during the corresponding period last year, the added.
State-run cooperative banks in the state had distributed short-term loans worth Rs 1227 crore in the last kharif session 2011-12 at an interest rate of three per cent per annum. The government however curtailed the rate of interest from three to one per cent this year.
The officials said that the cost of agriculture work had escalated and farmers were feeling the heat with the high cost. “In a move aimed to give some respite to the farmers, the state government had curtailed the interest rate on agriculture loan from three to one per cent from this year,” they added.
The state government had set a target of disbursing Rs 1700 crore agriculture loan this year. As of now, Rs 1272.43 crore had been distributed; of it Rs 805.38 crore was in cash and Rs 467.05 crore in kind that included seeds, and fertilizer.
