Farm Crop Loans

The government of India has approved the continuation of the Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) with modification for the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24, RBI said

Union Minister Amit Shah on Saturday urged Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) to extend more long-term loans to the agriculture sector, including for irrigation and other infrastructure

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging her to extend the moratorium on repayment of short-term.crop loans by farmers to December 31, 2021. Gandhi also sought waiver of all penal interest on such loans. He highlighted that farmers across the country are facing acute financial distress due to the pandemic. The former Congress chief said his parliamentary constituency Wayanad in Kerala is home to a significant number of small and marginal farmers growing cash crops. He said large parts of Kerala were devastated by two consecutive years of flooding in 2018 and 2019. "Just as the farmers were on their road to recovery, the Covid pandemic struck. This has severely heightened agrarian distress. Currently, farmers avail short-term crop loans at a concessional rate under the interest subvention scheme. "However, factors including multiple lockdowns, disruptions in the supply chain and limited market access have severely affected farm .

Their fintech Jai Kisan facilitates rightly-priced credit to rural borrowers engulfed in the cobwebs of informal money lenders, micro-financiers and loan sharks

Brings 25 million farmers under concessional loan scheme; experts say these measures do nothing to address basic problem of low farm prices and falling demand

Many farmers couldn't visit banks to pay dues on short-term crop loans in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions on movement of people

This will be applicable for short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh per farmer, the RBI said

The government has extended the benefit of 2 per cent interest subvention (IS) to banks and 3 per cent prompt repayment incentive (PRI) for all crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh given by banks

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

Kerala has witnessed the worst floods in over a century

However, this interest rate could go down to 4% on prompt repayment; Aadhaar linkage mandatory