Centre mulling new scheme for loan paying farmers: Pawar

Hailing the decision of waiving farmers’ loans to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said the Centre will come out with a new scheme to help the “honest” farmers who pay back their loans regularly.

“We will take steps through a new scheme to reward the farmers who regularly pay back their loans,” Pawar said, while addressing NCP’s state convention here.

Though a large number of farmers benefited from the loan waiving scheme, some poor farmers paid back their loans despite financial difficulties in order to avail a loan again, he pointed out.

“The poor farmers who could not get benefit from the loan waiver scheme should not feel cheated. The Centre will do something for them,” he said, adding many farmers honestly paid back their dues in time.

Loan waiving scheme had saved many farmers from committing suicide, he said and asked farmers of Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to stop producing parboil paddy.

While speaking on the distress sale of paddy, Pawar said production of parboil paddy was one of the reasons why paddy was not procured from Orissa and other states.

“There is no taker to the parboiled rice in the country. Therefore, please produce other paddy which has a market both inside the country and outside,” Pawar suggested to the Orissa farmers and added that FCI and other agencies would not hesitate to procure rice from them at proper price.

Pawar asked FCI to meet the target of paddy procurement from Orissa this time in order to help the farmers.

The agriculture minister also asked the state government to keep its annual requirement of paddy in the state despite transporting it to other places. Stating that the country’s economy mostly depended on agriculture, Pawar said many times farmers were put in a difficult situation due to natural calamities like flood, drought and cyclone.

“The Centre is ready to help the farmers. But the farmers and state government should go for cash crop which will benefit all,” he said.

Pawar said the proposed food security bill would ensure nobody in the country would be deprived of food. “People can go to court of law if they do not get rice or wheat at an affordable price from the government,” the minister said, adding that the UPA government was taking many pro-farmer steps.