AgriNation News Network

New Delhi. 25 April 2018

 Agriculture credit outflow is increasing every year and in the current financial year the target is Rs. 11 lakh crore. Close to 50-60% of credit outflow is to small and marginal farmers.

 Ashish Bhutani, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India said that there is a need for a convergence among various entities involved in farmer-related initiatives as gaps in transmission impacts implementation of such schemes. He was addressing a national conference on ‘Enhancing Credit Flow to Agriculture’ organised by FICCI.

He said, “states have to come on board in order to synergise and sync all the issues to form a comprehensive plan to ensure that small and marginal farmers are brought under the ambit of institutional credit system.”

R Amalorpavanathan, Deputy Managing Director, NABARD said there is a need for integrated financing system for the farmers. “Ultimately, credit is a function of trust and distress emanates from the squeezing of the profits of the farmers”, he said.

Warehousing can be a game-changer in improving profits of the farmers. “Huge private sector participation has helped in creating high-end, mechanised storage system for the agriculture sector”, said Dr. B B Pattanaik, Chairman, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA).

 He also informed that WDRA has a seamless online process for registering a warehouse, “Only those warehouses that plan to issue negotiable warehouse receipts, have to register with WDRA. But for proper remuneration to farmers, there has to be as many registered warehouses as possible”.

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