The Hindu : Other States / Punjab News : PNB gives loans to small farmers

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Friday, Sep 24, 2004

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PNB gives loans to small farmers

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, SEPT. 23. The Punjab National Bank disbursed loans worth Rs. 22 crores to small and marginal farmers for their various agricultural requirements at a Farmers' Meet Sammelan organised at village Maloya here yesterday. Over 2,000 farmers from various parts of Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh attended the Meet.

The PNB Chairman and Managing Director, S.S. Kohli, said that the Meet was organised to reach to the farmers, particularly the small and marginal ones who are still in the grip of money lenders, to understand their difficulties and to make them aware about various lending schemes of the PNB.

Mr.Kohli said that the PNB had been in the forefront in the implementation of Krishi Card Scheme and throughout the country, it had issued around 13 lakh cards amounting to Rs.5,000 crores. And in Haryana and Chandigarh, the Bank had so far issued over one lakh Krishi Cards to farmers.

To free the farmers from the clutches of money lenders, the Bank had started providing additional 25 per cent finance under the Krishi Card Scheme over and above the eligibility amount with a ceiling of Rs. 50,000. PNB has set a target of formation of one lakh Self Help Groups in the country during this financial year, out of which 50,000 Groups will be linked to bank finance.

Mr. Kohli stated that the PNB will now focus upon to finance plantations, horticulture, fisheries, organic livestock, watershed development, village pond forming and such like other activities which will help generate more employment opportunities in the rural areas. Rural infrastructural projects like schools, hospitals, rural housing and so on would also be considered for increasing bank finance.

Later, addressing mediapersons, he said that agriculture credit had become a commercial business proposition for banks. The rural sector was an important segment of the economy and the banks and the corporate world were looking at it as an important market for setting up of their products. In fact, more than 50 per cent of the demand was expected to emanate from this sector. "With the objective of creating more employment opportunities in the rural India, agri-funding will now be aimed more on investment credit than just on crop loans,'' he added.

The Central Government had recently initiated a series of measures for improving the economic plight of the farmers and all the commercial banks had agreed to meet the farm lending targets set by the Finance Minister. And 30 per cent annual compounded growth targets had been envisaged for the next three years to double the agriculture credit by the end of 2006-07. "The PNB has been achieving a much higher growth during the last four years and is the only bank amongst the bigger banks to have exceeded the national goal of 18 per cent of the total credit fixed for agriculture,'' he pointed out.

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