Agricultural Credit

Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Monday called for immediate action to expand the loan facility to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), to improve their financial condition. Reviewing the scheme to build the world's largest cooperative food grain storage network, Shah emphasised the extensive involvement of PACS in the food storage scheme. "It is necessary to make PACS an integral part of this scheme so that the financial viability and social effectiveness of PACS can be ensured," he said. Shah directed the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution and Food Corporation of India (FCI) to conduct national-level mapping of warehouses across the country, so that the implementation of the scheme can be done smoothly as per regional requirements, according to an official statement. The minister also instructed FCI, National Cooperative Consumers' Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFE

The allied activities receive only 10 per cent of the total agricultural credit while they contribute 40 per cent of the agricultural output, said the RBI report

For the first time in domestic banking, ICICI Bank is deploying satellite data to power farm credit assessment, which it claims will reduce cost for both farmers as well as the lender

Points to data showing its diversion and uneven distribution across many states

To provide credit access to lessee cultivators, he said government think tank Niti Aayog is working to find a suitable mechanism

Attempts must be made to target the entire agricultural value chain financing: Mundra