New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the progress of small and medium farmers is the main aim of the government. He said that under the historic Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme, an amount of Rs 1.35 lakh crore has been transferred directly to bank accounts of more than 11 crore such farmers. The Minister said this while addressing the webinar on 40th foundation day of NABARD.
Keeping in view the cost of cultivation and with the objective of making it remunerative for the farmers, the government has continuously increased the MSP procurement through state agencies. NABARD played an important role in record purchase by disbursing about 50 thousand crore rupees to
the state marketing associations.
Mr Tomar said that it is extremely important to provide timely credit to small and marginal farmers. The government successfully campaigned in mission mode to provide Kisan Credit Cards to PM-Kisan beneficiaries even during the Corona pandemic. In the budget of the current financial year, Rs 16 lakh crore lending target has been set up for the sector.
The Minister expressed satisfaction over the fact that NABARD has made available crop loans to farmers at concessional rates through cooperative and regional rural banks and in seven years, this amount reached to Rs 6.5 lakh crore.