Yogi targets Rs 41,610 crore in fresh crop loan advances

In the backdrop of the Yogi Adityanath cabinet announcing crop loan waiver of over Rs 36,000 crore, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet has now set a target of disbursing Rs 41,610 crore as fresh crop loans to farmers in the 2017 kharif season.

The government would also disburse 4.7 million Kisan Credit Cards to help farmers avail loans for input procurement. UP is targetting to double farmers’ income over the next five years.

On April 4, the Yogi cabinet had announced crop loan wavier of Rs 30,729 crore. An additional Rs 5,630 crore was announced to be written off in non-performing assets (NPA) accumulated by banks in the agricultural sector. Thus, the total relief amounted to Rs 36,359 crore, benefitting 8.6 million farmers in the state.

There are about 23 million farmers in UP, of which about 92.5 per cent, or roughly 21.5 million belong to the small and marginal segments.

Meanwhile, the state government has set a target of 9.16 million hectares of acreage in the current 2017 kharif cropping season. Likewise, it is targetting about 5 per cent increase in the kharif production from 18.51 million tonnes in 2016 to 19.46 million tonnes this year.

Of the kharif crop, the paddy crop is estimated to clock 5.6 per cent higher production in 2017 to 15.13 million tonnes from 14,39 million tonnes in 2016, although paddy acreage is not likely to rise, thus indicating better yield.