For cultivation of Rabi crops, the Chhattisgarh Government has distributed around Rs168 crore among farmers as short-term loan through Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies, officials stated.
As per the policy, the Government is providing interest free loan to farmers for Kharif and Rabi season. For this Rabi season, the Government has set the target of distributing short-term loan to the tune of around Rs650 crore. In five districts of Raipur division which include Raipur, Gariaband, Balodabazar, Mahasamund and Dhamtari, District Cooperative Central Bank, Raipur has distributed loan worth Rs4.79 crore to farmers, informed Chairman of the State Cooperative Bank (Apex) Ashok Bajaj.
Similarly, loan to the tune of around Rs29.28 crore has been given to farmers in Durg district followed by Balod (Rs37.59 crore) and Bemetara (Rs46.54 crore), he said. Besides, loan of around Rs13.38 crore has been distributed among farmers in Rajnandgaon district and over Rs 4 crore in Kabirdham distirct, Bajaj said.
Meanwhile, Bajaj informed that Rs 3.49 crore has been distributed among farmers as short-term loan in districts under Bilaspur division which include Bilaspur (Rs 2.77 crore), Mungeli (Rs11 lakh), Janjgir-Champa (Rs60 lakh).
In seven districts of Bastar division, Rs18.32 crore has been distributed as short-term loan and large numbers of farmers have been benefitted with short-term loan in districts under Surguja division, he said.
Notably, the government has decided to sow cereal, oilseeds, pulses and vegetables in around 17 lakh hectares in the ongoing sowing of Rabi Crops out of which sowing in 12 lakh hectares has been covered by January 5, stated officials. By December 23 last year, sowing for Rabi season crops was completed in 60 per cent of the cultivation area in Chhattisgarh.
Moreover, during the current season, vegetables would be grown in 1.70 lakh hectares and the farmers have already carried out sowing in one lakh hectares of land. The farmers have also carried out sowing for sugarcane crops in an estimated 10,000 hectares of land.
Agriculture Department has started encouraging the farmers to sow more of pulses crop in Rabi season 2015-16. As per the given target, 3.60 lakh hectares have been marked for sowing gram, 30,000 hectares for lentils, 30,000 hectares for moong, 15,000 hectares for urad, 40,000 hectares for kulthi and 3.50 lakh hectares have been marked for sowing Tivra crop.