JOIN US The Karnataka government has disbursed crop loans at zero per cent interest to 7.45 lakh farmers till September this year, Co-operation Minister B J Puttaswamy said on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference in Bangalore, Puttaswamy said the State government has set a target to provide Rs 6,400 crore crop loan at zero or one per cent interest to 19.5 lakh farmers during the current financial year.
Farmers had already availed crop loan to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore, of which Rs 2,376 crore has been provided at zero per cent interest, he said. Priority was being given to agricultural labourers and also farmers who were availing loans for the first time, the minister said.
The State government has issued a circular to all district co-operative banks to provide loans at three per cent interest, especially for agricultural labourers, to buy milch cows.
The government rolled out a scheme to extend Rs 34,000 loan to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the Karnataka Milk Federation to purchase milch cows in 2007, but the Federation did not implement it, he said.