Farmers worry over Kharif crops

Nizamabad: During the current Kharif season, only Rs 176 crore have been disbursed towards Kharif crop loans against the targeted Rs 645 crore.

`In spite of having congenial atmosphere with sufficient water and continuous power supply for Kharif season, farmers face hardships in purchasing seeds and fertilisers for lack of sufficient funds. They even have to invest money for taking up cultivation.

The famers have been badly hit by the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes which came as a bolt from the blue, especially at a time when they were in high spirits with all the climatic factors favouring them.

It has been almost a fortnight the cultivation process had begun. As December 15 is the deadline for disbursement of funds, bank officials said that the funds would be deposited in the accounts of farmers. This is making the situation even worse as there is a limit fixed for daily withdrawals of cash.

The farmers who were supposed to be busy with their cultivation activities like ploughing the fields and sowing of seeds were forced to stand in serpentine queues for hours every day in front of banks and ATMs for withdrawing cash.

However, expressing their helplessness, bank officials said that they cannot disburse funds unless they receive adequate amounts of hard cash from the Reserve Bank of India. Speaking to the media here on Monday, they said were not in position to mobilise the funds necessary for the farmers.