Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday asked banks to rescue farmers by promptly rescheduling the kharif 2010 crop loans, sanctioning fresh crop loans and passing on the interest waiver benefit of the government to them.
Speaking at the 172nd State Level Bankers’ Committee here on Thursday, he said incessant rains this year had damaged a majority of crops. In view of the heavy loss to farmers, the Andhra Pradesh government had come forward to provide interest waiver on the crop loans they had taken for kharif 2010. The state government had relaxed the procurement norms for paddy, provided compensation for loss of livestock and looms, he said.
Crops in 1.62 million hectare have been damaged in the rains.
Banks have lent Rs 16,650 crore for kharif 2010, 95 per cent of the Rs 17,474 crore target set. For the rabi season, this stood at Rs 4,403 crore, making it just 50 per cent of Rs 8,778 crore target. The chief minister asked the banks to step up the lending during the rabi season by January without waiting for the kharif loans to be converted into term loans.
Agriculture lending has improved from Rs 9,019 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 37,573 crore by 2009-10.
SLBC president and Andhra Bank chairman and managing director R Ramachandran said banks had in-principle agreed to reschedule the crop loans of farmers in the rain-affected areas and would also extend further finance for fresh crops. He said the progress under rabi lending would have been better but for the recent floods.
The fake pattadar passbooks was a major concern. Though the government has been providing land records to the bank branches, the exercise is yet to be completed in many places, he said, urging the government to provide a foolproof land record system.
He pointed out that falling recovery was another problem facing banks and the state government should help them in this regard. It would be difficult for the banking system to sustain if there is no continuing thrust on prompt repayment, particularly from agriculture, SHG-bank linkage and weaker section housing. An amount of Rs 2,098 crore as of this October has not been repaid by farmers. This accounts for 16.42 per cent of the outstanding loans. A large number of crop loans given in 2007 and 2008 still remain unpaid.
Revenue minister N Raghuveera Reddy said the government would soon issue security-enabled pattadar passbooks.
