<p>Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government would continue the interest subvention scheme on short-term crop loans for farmers for loans up to Rs 3 lakh per farmer at an interest rate of 7 per cent per annum. <br /><br />Incentive<br /><br />If a farmer repaid the short-term loans on time, the government would pay an additional subvention of 1 per cent as incentive. Thus the interest rate for these farmers will come down to 6 per cent per annum.<br /><br />The Centre has allocated Rs 411 crore more in the Budget for the purpose over and above the allocation made in the interim budget.<br /><br />The government also hiked the target of agricultural credit for 2009-10 to Rs 3,25,000 crore after achieving last year’s target when it had disbursed Rs 2,87,000 crore of farm loans as against the target of Rs 2,80,000 crore.<br /><br />Mukherjee said the debt waiver scheme, announced in the 2008-09 Budget, would be extended till December 31 this year in view of the delayed monsoon. The Rs 71,000-crore scheme, which covered 4 crore farmers, had ended in June 2009.<br /><br />He also announced the setting up of a task force to identify a large number of farmers in Maharashtra who had been left out of the scheme as they had availed loans from private money lenders.<br /><br />The economic survey painted a dismal picture of the agriculture sector. It said despite an increase in the credit flow to the farming sector, the growth slipped in 2008-09 by 1.6 per cent. There was speculation that the government would announce an array of sops for farmers because of the erratic monsoon this year, but it did not happen.<br /><br /><em>DH News Service</em></p>
<p>Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government would continue the interest subvention scheme on short-term crop loans for farmers for loans up to Rs 3 lakh per farmer at an interest rate of 7 per cent per annum. <br /><br />Incentive<br /><br />If a farmer repaid the short-term loans on time, the government would pay an additional subvention of 1 per cent as incentive. Thus the interest rate for these farmers will come down to 6 per cent per annum.<br /><br />The Centre has allocated Rs 411 crore more in the Budget for the purpose over and above the allocation made in the interim budget.<br /><br />The government also hiked the target of agricultural credit for 2009-10 to Rs 3,25,000 crore after achieving last year’s target when it had disbursed Rs 2,87,000 crore of farm loans as against the target of Rs 2,80,000 crore.<br /><br />Mukherjee said the debt waiver scheme, announced in the 2008-09 Budget, would be extended till December 31 this year in view of the delayed monsoon. The Rs 71,000-crore scheme, which covered 4 crore farmers, had ended in June 2009.<br /><br />He also announced the setting up of a task force to identify a large number of farmers in Maharashtra who had been left out of the scheme as they had availed loans from private money lenders.<br /><br />The economic survey painted a dismal picture of the agriculture sector. It said despite an increase in the credit flow to the farming sector, the growth slipped in 2008-09 by 1.6 per cent. There was speculation that the government would announce an array of sops for farmers because of the erratic monsoon this year, but it did not happen.<br /><br /><em>DH News Service</em></p>
