NABARD frames farmer friendly scheme

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 19:01 IST
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Bangalore: National bank for agriculture and rural development (NABARD) has come up with a scheme which can help farmers to protect themselves against exploitation by moneylenders and middlemen. NABARD has provided the basic format of the plan to all the listed commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), state co-operative agriculture and rural development banks, and asked to build their own schemes keeping in lines with the format. Nand Gopal Gupta, Institutional Finance Minister has affirmed that the scheme will be really helpful for the farmers. Under the scheme, farmers will be sanctioned a loan of maximum 25,000 on 12 percent to 12.5 percent simple interest on the condition that they do not take any fresh loan from the moneylenders. All such farmers who have obtained loan from moneylenders, either through written undertaking or verbally, will be provided loan under this facility. The farmers willing to obtain the loan should not be the defaulters of any banks. The farmers will have to submit an affidavit on how much have they taken as loan from the moneylenders. NABARD will re-finance at least 80 percent of the loan to the banks. Farmers will be asked to pay back the loan in five to seven years about a year after the loan gets sanctioned to them by the banks. All the banks have been directed to identify at least five villages (for every branch) and find out on their own about the villagers there who are being exploited by the moneylenders. The banks will have to facilitate easy loan to the farmers and free them from the clutches of the moneylenders. If a farmer turns up on his own, banks will have to help him also. The progress of the scheme will be assessed by the head offices of the banks.