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Cash crunch, official apathy hit farmers
Cash crunch, coupled with the bankers’ lackadaisical approach, has made life miserable for the farmers as they still run from pillar to post to get crop loans, this even after a month into the kharif season and completion of sowing operations in almost one-third of the total cropping area in the State.
Hyderabad: Cash crunch, coupled with the bankers’ lackadaisical approach, has made life miserable for the farmers as they still run from pillar to post to get crop loans, this even after a month into the kharif season and completion of sowing operations in almost one-third of the total cropping area in the State.
Albeit timely showers have brought smiles on the faces of farmers this monsoon, it appears like that it won’t last long if the cultivators fail to get loans some more time. This may invariably lead them to lend money from private financiers that likely end them in debt trap.
State’s Agriculture Action Plan envisages helping farmers cultivate crops on 43.58 lakh hectares in kharif and 15.05 lakh hectares in rabi during the 2017-18. The Annual Credit Plan-2017- 18 released a few days ago targets to give Rs 39,752 crore crop loans to cultivators. Of which, Rs 23,851 crore during kharif and Rs 15,901 in rabi.
Against this backdrop, it’s learnt that authorities sanctioned about Rs 9,200 crore out of kharif’s total credit plan of Rs 23,851 crore.
Despite this, bankers reportedly failed to disburse at least 10 per cent of loans to cultivators in the State as they ran out of cash for over a month now. Speaking to The Hans India, Telangana Rythu Sangham vicepresident Nunna Nageswara Rao said: “Last year also, the bankers failed to dispense crop loans to farmers in tune with the credit plan.
As a result, three-fourths of 56 lakh small and marginal farmers had to fetch loans from private moneylenders who charge an exorbitant rate of interest.” Forget about getting crop loans this year, farmers have to stand in long queues outside the banks even to draw their own money as the demonetisation effect continues to haunt them.
They are unable to purchase inputs like seed and fertiliser or to pay wages to farm labourers due to cash crunch in the banks, Rao said. “I tried in vain running around the bank. The officials say that they have no cash in the bank,” Jaladi Sangaiah of Khammam Rural mandal said.
On the other hand, Dandu Krishna of Konijerla mandal was denied loan on the pretext of non-clearance of previous loan. Although, Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy took up the issue with the State- Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) and had requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to intervene to ensure cash availability, the situation remained grim.
A senior bank official said that since May, the RBI had stopped supply of currency notes to the State which direly needs a cash supply of at least Rs 6,000 crore to address the immediate needs of farmers.
