Rs 11,000 cr farm loans expend by Telangana govt during ongoing COVID-19 Crisis

Withstanding the financial burden on the State’s exchequer due to prolonged lockdown, Telangana has secured the welfare of the farmer by ensuring that sufficient and timely farm loans are issued. While the State level bankers meeting set a target of Rs 31,936 crore as farm loans for the Vaanakalam, Rs 11,093 crore has been disbursed as on Tuesday. It was only Rs 10,580 crore last year by the end of July.

Addressing media here on Tuesday , Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said that the Cooperative banks on the hand have sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs 1516.88 crore so far. “It was only Rs 1296 crore last year. While 11,77,326 farmers have availed loans last year this year the number increased to 12, 97,267 ,” he said adding that the farmers were given more loans when compared to the Vaanakalam season of earlier years.

Countering certain media report alleging lack of farm loans , the Minister said that the Telangana government stood behind the farmer even during the peak stage of Covid-19. “The State lost revenue of Rs 50,000 crore but we have distributed Rs 7251 crore to farmers under the Rytu Bandhu



scheme. Every single grain produced by the farmer was procured by going to their doorsteps at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore and farmers obeying the direction of the Chief Minister implemented the regulated cropping pattern suggested by the experts,” he said.

He reiterated that the government believes that all the other sectors of the economy will be strong if the agriculture sector is strong. ” The government waived loans up to Rs 25,000 to 2.87 lakh farmers in a single go. While 41 , 31,004 farmers availed farm loans last year, 20 percent of them availed loans from cooperative banks and the rest from commercial banks,” Niranjan Reddy said. Attributing the success in the farming sector to availability of irrigation, he said that 70 percent of the farmers have received assured irrigation, helping them take more crops per acre.

“Rural Telangana was strengthened and farmers have become debt free due to the programmes launched and implemented by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Loans to women groups, KCR Kits, Aasara pensions, Rytu Bandhu, procurement of grain by government, and a bumper crop made this possible,” he said.