Odisha govt to give Rs 1,040 crore credit to landless farmers

The Odisha government has begun a scheme ‘Balaram’ to provide agricultural credit of Rs 1,040 crore to landless farmers who are suffering difficulties due to the COVID19 outbreak. A total of seven lakh landless cultivators will be helped from the programme in the next two years. The resolution in this regard was taken at a high-level meeting directed over by chief secretary A K Tripathy.

The scheme was outlined in collaboration with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) that the village agriculturers will implement the programme at the field level. Odisha will provide Rs 1,040 crore credit to 7 lakh landless farmers “Extending credit to the cultivators will be a firm step towards enhancing productivity in the agricultural sector,” A K Tripathy.

Each donor will finance at least 10 JLGs in a year and that there are around 7,000 sections of different banks and the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in rural and semi-urban regions.

“Each JLG will have five members, and one group will get Rs 1.6 lakh. The target is to cover around seven lakh, landless cultivators, through 1.40 lakh JLGs within two years,” he said. The credit would be available as a standard crop loan.