Banks provide Rs 1,685cr crop loans in dist

  • | Sunday | 7th October, 2018

The private bankers are still low on lending credit to farmers, but their stakes are increasing.The bankers said the non-performing assets (NPAs) were a major worry among private banks. The bankers were, however, taking cautious steps, an official said.“The returns from agriculture are unpredictable. They also said there was pressure from the district administration for giving loans to farmers but recovery was a major issue. “The picture is changing and hence the institutionalized loan is reaching the agriculture sector,” the official said. At the same time the Reserve Bank of India guidelines about the NPAs were strict and hence the private banks were hesitating to increase their share in lending,” an official from a private bank said.At the last meeting, the collector had asked the tahsildars to take lead in the process and there has been a major change since then.

Nashik: The banks in the district have provided crop loans to the tune of Rs 1,685 crore to farmers during the kharif season of 2018-19, compared to Rs 980 crore last year, said additional district collector Nilesh Sagar.“The banks have done better than last year though the target is way far,” Sagar said at a review meeting of the district-level consultative committee headed by the district collector, said.The meeting was attended by officials of nationalized and private banks, along with officers of the cooperative department.The bankers said the situation has improved drastically with September-end figures showing deeper penetration of nationalised banks in the agriculture sector of Nashik which hitherto was ruled by the cooperative sector. The private bankers are still low on lending credit to farmers, but their stakes are increasing.The bankers said the non-performing assets (NPAs) were a major worry among private banks. They also said there was pressure from the district administration for giving loans to farmers but recovery was a major issue. The bankers were, however, taking cautious steps, an official said.“The returns from agriculture are unpredictable. At the same time the Reserve Bank of India guidelines about the NPAs were strict and hence the private banks were hesitating to increase their share in lending,” an official from a private bank said.At the last meeting, the collector had asked the tahsildars to take lead in the process and there has been a major change since then. Now, tahsildars have taken steps to ensure that banks do not harass farmers unnecessarily.“It worked both ways -- the presence of the administration on the one hand reduced harassment of the farmers, while on the other hand bankers were able to get the papers related to farmers that were required from the administration because of the camp mode,” a senior official from a nationalized bank said.The intervention is paying dividend. “The picture is changing and hence the institutionalized loan is reaching the agriculture sector,” the official said.

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