Tamil Nadu may witness the disbursal of crop loans of at least ₹1.04 lakh crore during 2021-22, according to a projection made by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in its State focus paper (SFP) for the next financial year.
The SFP, the theme of which was “Collectivisation of agricultural produce for enhancing farmers’ income”, was launched by Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam at an event on Wednesday.
Additional Chief Secretary (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) Hans Raj Verma, Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Gagandeep Singh Bedi and Chief General Manager of NABARD S. Selvaraj were among those present on the occasion.
In total, the component of farm credit, which also covers activities in areas like water resources and farm mechanisation, would be around ₹1,45,510 crore. It would account for 42% of the total exploitable credit potential of about ₹3,43,452 crore for the priority sector.
In 2019-20, the amount of crop loans disbursed was about ₹1.05 lakh crore — 89% of the target. During 2020-21, the target figure was nearly ₹1.06 lakh crore.
Alluding to the widespread practice of providing agricultural jewel loans under the garb of crop loans, the NABARD suggested that the banks implement the Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) initiative in letter and in spirit, and increase disbursements as “pure crop loans”. It called for the popularisation and adoption of the revised guidelines for providing farm credit to all eligible farmers under KCC.
Under the overall segment of agriculture, there are two more components — agriculture infrastructure and ancillary activities. Potential Linked Credit Plan (PLP) estimates for the two components are ₹9,607 crore and ₹11,053 crore, respectively.
Another segment which has been projected to receive substantial credit next year is that of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), for which the estimate is about ₹1.02 lakh crore.
