The State Government’s efforts to provide loan for farming at one per cent interest in Chhattisgarh has started bearing fruits.
According to information gathered by the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank (Apex Bank) from various districts of the state, during the current Kharif year 2013, Rs 1,480.49 crore short-term loan has been distributed to the farmers at 1 per cent interest against the target of Rs 2,300 crore.
According to the officers of Apex Bank, as the state government, under the leadership of chief minister Dr Raman Singh, has been giving agriculture loan to the farmers at low interest rate since year 2004, the number of loan takers has been increased year after year.
The state government, to give relief to the farmers from the burden of increasing cost of farming, had slashed the interest rate on loan to 9 per cent in the year 2004-05, 7 per cent in 2006-07, 6 per cent in 2007-08, and 6 per cent from 2008-09 and from 2012-13 the interest rate has been slashed to 1 per cent only.
The officers said that along with withdrawal of agriculture loan, agriculture production has also been increase continuously every year. In the year 2007-08, 31.51 lakh metric tonne paddy had arrived in the state cooperative societies, which has increased to 71 lakh metric tonne in the year 2012, the officers added.
In the societies, the farmers received Rs 2,390 crore support price on paddy during the year 2007-08, while it was about Rs 9,000 crore in 2012, in addition to bonus Rs 1,926 crore at Rs 270 per quintal.
For the Kharif crops, every year short term agriculture loan has been distributed by the District Cooperative Central Banks from April to September and for Rabi crops from October to March through the cooperative societies.