Kerala   

No more aid for debt-stressed farmers?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bank aid such as loan write-off, interest-waiver and rescheduling of old debt envisaged under the Prime Minister’s package of relief measures for the debt-stressed farmers of three districts in the State appears to have come to a close.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the nodal agency for the relief package implementation, has advised the banks that no more claims will be entertained by it, according to the banking review of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC). All the banks have already submitted to the nodal agency the list of farmers eligible for their aid under the relief package.

The message from NABARD means that those still hoping for the bank-aid component of the relief package can stop entertaining the hope.

As many as 3,05,543 farmer-account holders received the benefit of interest waiver in the districts of Wayanad, Palakkad and Kasaragod included in the Prime Minister’s relief package. The banks wrote off interest worth Rs.223.82 crore for them. The banks have been reimbursed a sum of Rs.218.96 crore (and the remaining sum is on the way).

The rescheduling of the loans is yet to be done for all the eligible accounts. The banks have identified 3,02,804 eligible accounts, but only in the case of 1,40,641 of them, the process of rescheduling has been completed so far. Rescheduling involves loans totalling Rs.802.63 crore. Those actually given the benefit of a fresh schedule of repayment cover a sum of Rs.397.19 crore. In other words, nearly 50 per cent of the farmers’ debt identified for this component of the relief package is yet to be rescheduled.

The banking statistics, disturbingly, points to an apparent reluctance on the part of the identified debt-stressed farmers to take fresh loans for their farm operations. “This issue needs close attention,” says Agricultural Production Commissioner K. Jayakumar. “Why are these farmers not approaching the banks for fresh finance? Are they depending on private money lenders? Or, are they waiting for something else?”

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