Rs 3,000-cr crop loan targeted for 2010-11

The Orissa government targets to provide Rs 3000-crore crop loan through the cooperative sector in both the Kharif and Rabi seasons during 2010-11.

The targeted loan amount includes Rs 1600 crore for the Kharif season and Rs 1400-crore in the Rabi season.

This is 12.33 per cent higher than Rs 2670.50 crore of loan disbursed through the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) in 2009-10. Out of the total loan of Rs 2670.5 crore disbursed in 2009-10, Rs 1407.82 crore was in the Kharif season and the balance Rs 1262.68 crore were disbursed in the Rabi season.

The disbursement of 2670.5 crore of agriculture loan in the last fiscal through the cooperative sector was the highest in the state.

Around 10.11 lakh borrowers in the Kharif season and 8.17 lakh in the Rabi season were benefited from the loan.

“The government had initially set a crop loan target of Rs 2500 crore in the agriculture sector for 2009-10. But the amount was later revised to Rs 2680 crore (Rs 1152 crore for Rabi and Rs 1530 crore for Kharif)”, said T K Mishra, managing director of Orissa State Cooperative Bank (OSCB).

The subsidized interest rate of 5 per cent on agricultural loans is reported to have contributed to this achievement.

With the start of the Kharif-2010 season from April 1 this year, the OSCB has given targets to the individual DCC banks. The highest crop loan target has been fixed for DCC-Balasore at Rs 235 crore followed by Rs 190 crore fixed for Sambalpur.

Similarly, Rs 180 crore loan disbursement target has been set for Cuttack and Rs 145 crore set for Angul.