The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BJP urges Centre to provide cheaper credit to farmers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 21, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BJP urges Centre to provide cheaper credit to farmers

Special Correspondent

BJP organises conference of farmers from southern States

BANGALORE: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar has asked the Centre to direct public sector banks to reduce the interest rate on farm loans from nine per cent to six per cent.

Mr. Kumar, who inaugurated a two-day conference of farmers from the southern States here on Saturday, organised by the Kisan Morcha of the party, said the Government should take steps to make available cheaper credit to farmers. Quoting a survey conducted by the World Bank, he said 70 per cent of the rural people do not have a bank account, 80 per cent are without access to credit from a formal source and 48 per cent of landless and marginal farmers borrow from moneylenders.

There are a variety of reasons for agrarian distress and suicide by farmers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab. They include low prices for produce, inadequate marketing facilities, supply of inferior fertilizers and seeds and natural calamities such as drought and flood. Some of the problems can be solved by effective intervention by the Government. But the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre is anti-farmer, he charged.

As many as 1,500 farmers in Karnataka, 4,000 in Andhra Pradesh, 450 in Maharashtra and 45 in Kerala committed suicide during the past three years. Mr. Kumar put the annual losses incurred by farmers on account of the dip in prices at Rs. 1,15,800 crores.

The Centre has closed down 2,848 rural branches of nationalised banks during the past 14 months while farm lending declined from Rs. 26,000 crores to Rs 24,000 crores during the period.

He demanded that the Centre introduce a separate Union agriculture budget to address the problems confronting farmers. On the lines of the Ministry of External Affairs, a Ministry of Agricultural Affairs should be created. At present 14 departments are involved in the formulation and implementation of agricultural policies, the former Union Minister said.

He suggested that agriculture be shifted from the State List to the Concurrent List, which will help in better resource allocation, integrated planning and implementation and taking on global challenges.

State BJP president Jagadish Shettar appealed to the Government to help farmers who have lost their crops in the floods in the northern parts of the State. Farmers are facing problems such as irregular supply of power and untimely disbursement of crop insurance, he said.

Kisan Morcha president Anna Saheb Patil said expansion of rural credit will help farmers overcome difficulties.

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