Landless farmers in Odisha to get the loan through joint liability group

The ruling government in Odisha has decided to provide loans to landless farmers through the joint liability (JLG) group at 1% interest rate.

Cooperation Minister, Surya Narayan Patro announced at a media conference," each joint liability group will comprise of five farmers. The group will be provided a loan of Rs. 50,000 and small farmers having their own land will be granted a loan in proportion to the area of the land. Each cooperative society will have to provide the loan to at least 10 groups."

Loan to the landless farmers will be provided during the Kharif season this year, Patro said and added that the chief minister has directed the cooperation department to disburse Rs 7200 crore loans to farmers out of which Rs 200 crore has been allocated for the landless farmers through the joint liability groups. Besides, Rs1000 crore will be provided as term loan in the agriculture sector, he said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik evaluated the performance of cooperation department which has disbursed crop loan of  Rs19099.06 crore at one per cent interest rate to 6940466 farmers and Rs 20034.88 crore at two percent interest rate to 12451458 farmers during the last four years.

Agriculture loan up to Rs 50,000 has one per cent rate while loan above Rs 50,000 attracts two per cent interest rate. Besides, the state government has also provided interest subsidy of Rs1466.79 crore during the same period.

The minister said that drafting of a comprehensive warehousing act is currently in the process and will be completed soon. The farmers covered under the new provision will be provided with various farming tools at a lower rent along with a choice to sell off their produce directly to the government, as per the decision. Similarly, in another new provision, the women street vendors in the state would now be entitled to avail a loan of up to Rs 30,000 to develop their business.