Sharad Pawar writes to PM on farmers' coronavirus lockdown woes

NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday sought the Centre's intervention to provide immediate relief to farmers due to the lockdown in place for the novel coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pawar said the condition of farmers has worsened due to untimely rains and hailstorms in some parts of the country, impairing their repayment capacity.

The complete lockdown has disrupted agriculture operations due to unavailability of labourers and other resources, leaving standing crops unattended, halting harvesting, and impeding farmers' access to transportation, warehousing, marketing and export, he said.

Horticulture crops like vegetables, fruits, flowers being perishable are highly affected, as also subsidiary occupations like poultry, fisheries and animal husbandry.

Pawar said farm credit target through NABARD for the current fiscal needs to be increased.

Restructuring of existing loans by conversion of short term loan to long term loan, rescheduling repayment period, alteration of installment amount and reduction in interest rate were some of the measures suggested by Pawar.

He said the the Centre should ensure availability of credit for crop loans at minimal interest rate, and must extend the limit of submission of crop loan proposal to June 30.