[Filler] FM Sets Agriculture Credit Target At Record Rs 10 Lakh Crore
Agriculture and allied sectors get Rs 1.87 lakh crore in Union Budget 2017.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a host of measures for strengthening the country's distressed agriculture sector, including a record target of advancing Rs 10 lakh crore credit to farmers in the next financial year.
Overall, a total of Rs 1.87 lakh crore has been allocated to agriculture, rural and allied sectors for 2017-18.
The agriculture sector is expected to grow at 4.1 percent in 2017-18, Jaitley said in his Union Budget speech. “We will take special measures to ensure adequate flow of credit to underserved areas such as the eastern regions and Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
Jaitley said the farmers will benefit from the 60-day interest waiver which was recently announced for the loans taken from co-operative societies.
For a good crop, aduequate credit must be available to farmers in timeFM Arun Jaitley
Forty percent of small and marginal farmers take credit from primary agriculture societies that act as a front for loan disbursements, Jaitley said.
The finance minister said the government will support the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in digitisation of its existing records and systems. This would be done over three years at a cost of Rs 1,900 crore.
He also announced setting up a dedicated micro-irrigation fund under the NABARD with an initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore. E-markets would also be set up and extended to at least 500 Agriculture Produce Market Committees to ensure that farmers get the best prices for their crop.
The Union Budget 2017 has also increased the target coverage under the Fasal Bima Yojana to 40 percent from 30 percent earlier. It further takes it up to 50 percent in 2018-19 with a proposed amount of Rs 9,000 crore being set aside.