Soft Loans For Sugarcane Growers

In a move aimed at raising sugarcane output, the government will provide short term loans to sugarcane growers at concessional rates for buying seed, fertilisers and pesticides.

The loan will be routed to the cane cultivators through the sugar mills. The department of sugar and edible oils in the food ministry has issued a notification modifying the existing Sugar Development Fund Rules, 1983, for this purpose.

The loan to the sugar mills, to be passed on to the farmers, will vary from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.50 crore, depending on the capacity of the units. The loans will carry a concessional interest rate of nine per cent and are to be repaid by the farmers in four half-yearly instalments.

According to an official note, the scheme is being launched to assist cultivators in raising cane output in the new planting season, which has just begun. The objective is to reverse the present downtrend in sugar production in the 1998-99 sugar year.