FM announces 30,000 crore emergency fund for farmers

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced measures to provide credit and relief to farmers affected by the lockdown, including a ??$ 2 trillion credit program that will cover 25 million farmers who do not have Kisan credit cards and ??30,000 crore additional emergency working capital through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. To this end, the government will start a special campaign to provide concessional credits to beneficiaries of the PM-Kisan income support program through Kisan credit cards. “Almost ??2,000 billion in concessional credits will be granted to stimulate agricultural activity. The special reader will benefit 2.5 crore farmers who do not have these Kisan credit cards. The rough estimate is that while there are 9 crores of PM Kisan beneficiaries, out of those 2.5 crores farmers do not have a Kisan credit card. Now we are reaching out to them and giving them the card, ”she said. This decision will allow these farmers to access institutional credit at a concessional interest rate, and will also cover fishermen and livestock farmers. liquidity of ??2,000 billion in the agricultural sector, according to an official statement. After the covid-19 outbreak, the 2.5 million new Kisan credit cards were penalized with a loan limit of ??25,000 crore, the minister said. The ??An additional emergency working capital of 30,000 crore will be added to the ??A budget allocation of 90,000 crore announced on February 1 for Nabard, the minister said. ” ??An additional 30,000 crore of emergency working capital will be provided by Nabard to three crore of marginal small farmers, ”Sitharaman said at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. The ad was part of a set of nine points for migrants, farmers and tribes. The agricultural sector is seen as stressed due to the lockdown given the disruption of food supply chains. According to Sitharaman, Nabard will extend additional support to the refinancing of ??30,000 crore for crop loan requirement from rural cooperative banks and regional rural banks. The program is primarily provided with a reception facility from 33 state cooperative banks, 351 district cooperative banks and 43 RRBs available at reception based on their loans. The program is designed to meet the post-harvest rabi (winter) and current kharif (summer) needs of 30 million marginal smallholder farmers during the months of May and June, she said. However, the reactions of experts to the finance minister’s proposals have been mixed. “Only around 30% of farm households benefit from institutional loans,” said Shweta Saini, an agricultural economics expert at the New Delhi-based ICRIER think tank. “The rest of the 70% typically borrow money from lenders. local. Even those who have access to credit, today’s announcement effectively says that this is help for the future, that it does not solve their problems today – their loss of money. current income or their loss of savings, ”she said. [email protected]