Bhubaneswar, July 22 (FN Bureau) Odisha will introduce interest subvention scheme to provide short term credit to farmers at a subsidized interest for their farming operations. The state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday approved Rs 5700 crore for implementation of the state sector scheme for five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28 to ensure adequate credit flow in agriculture at an affordable rate of interest to the farmers in the state. Briefing newspersons after the Cabinet meeting Cooperation Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said the initiative will help in growth of production and productivity and enhancement of income of farmers from farming activities leading to a better livelihood.
Odisha has a three tier short term cooperative credit structure with Odisha state cooperative bank at the apex level, 17 Central Cooperative bank at the middle rung and 2710 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Large Sized Adivasi Multipurpose Cooperative societies at the grass root level playing a vital role in dispensation of agricultural credit. The cooperative has achieved a significant stride in crop loan dispersion from Rs 438.36 crore to 6.40 lakh farmers in 2000-01 to Rs 16683.57 crore to 34.57 lakh farmers in 2022-23. At present the Cooperative provides about 55 percent of the total crop loans disbursed to the farmers in the state against the national average of 17 percent.
The Odisha government has now decided for dispensation of crop loan up to Rs 1 lakh at zero percent interest free loan from April 1, 2022 and for crop loans above Rs one lakh to Rs three lakh at 2 percent interest for prompt paying farmers. Earlier interest free crop loan was being provided upto the limit of Rs 50,000 under KALIA . During 2022-23, about 32.43 lakh small and marginal farmers availed crop loans from cooperative banks/ PACs within Rs one lakh with zero percent interest rate per annum. The state government is providing interest subvention /subsidy to cooperative banks and PACS to compensate the loss sustained by the Cooperative banks and PACS.