Farm credit: Naveen seeks Pranabs intervention

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday asked the Centre to direct the commercial banks to undertake a special drive to make available kissan credit cards (KCCs) to all the farmers of Odisha, preferably by year-end. In a letter to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the Chief Minister said that thereafter all the KCC holders may be provided with adequate credit support to meet their needs. These steps will go a long way forward in making a significant impact in Odisha which is one of the seven focus states in the eastern region for the second green revolution with support from the Government of India, he said. Stating that the agriculture sector plays a crucial role in the economic growth and prosperity of Odisha, the Chief Minister said to achieve this end, the State needs support from the commercial banks through crop loans, agricultural term loans and loan for allied sectors of agriculture. Particularly, in the case of crop loans, the farmers of Odisha are heavily dependent on cooperative banks as all the commercial banks, which together provide only 30 per cent of credit to the farmers, he said. Naveen said that in view of this he had attended one of the State-level bankers committee (SLBC) meeting on August 18, 2011 and had urged the commercial banks to effectively discharge the responsibilities assigned to them in the larger interest of farming community. Stating that credit support from the commercial banks has become all the more important because of the recent floods which has affected the kharif crop of thousands of farmers, Naveen said timely and adequate credit will help farmers raise a good rabi crop. It was expected that all the commercial banks would rise to the occasion and do everything possible to help the needy farmers, he said. In the last SLBC meeting on November 15, it was seen that achievements of the commercial banks under crop loan and total advances to the priority sector as compared to the actual credit plan were reported as 59 per cent and 49 per cent respectively of the targets up to September, 2011. In other words, the commercial banks have not taken their task seriously at all, he said and requested the Finance Minister to direct the commercial banks to undertake a special drive to provide KCCs to farmers.