Farm loan disbursement to exceed target in FY11: FM

2010-11 current fiscal,I fixed a target of Rs 3,75,000 crore and I am quite confident,because by December I have already reached Rs 3 lakh crore,it will be possible to exceed the target of Rs 3,75,000 crore, he said.

Citing past experience,Mukherjee said,when we came to office in May,2004,we decided we would like to double the short-term agricultural credit within 3 years. At that point of time the total quantum of short term credit was Rs 86,000 crore. We completed it in two years.

The short-term credit target for 2009-10 was Rs 3,25,000 crore,which exceeded to Rs 3,91,000 crore,he said. For 2011-12,the government has fixed a target of Rs 4.75 lakh crore,he said,adding,I do hope that my friends in the banking community would come up to the expectation of the people and poor farmers of this nation.

In the Budget speech,Mukherjee had said to get the best from their land,farmers need access to affordable credit. Banks have been consistently meeting the targets set for agriculture credit flow in the past few years.

For the year 2011-12,I am raising the target of credit flow to the farmers from Rs 3,75,000 crore this year to Rs 4,75,000 crore. Banks have been asked to step up direct lending for agriculture and credit to small and marginal farmers, he had said.

Mukherjee said since 2006-07,the government is also providing interest subvention to all Public Sector Banks,Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks for short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh,so as to ensure that short-term agriculture credit is available at 7 per cent to farmers.

From 2010-11,an additional 2 per cent interest subvention is being provided to those farmers,who repay their short-term crop loans in time,he said.

Thus,the short-term crop credit is available to farmers at 5 per cent in 2010-11. In the year 2011-12,the Interest Subvention Scheme proposes to further incentivise prompt repayment by farmers by providing a further incentive of 3 per cent interest subvention,he said.