PM promises easy credit to farmers

A two-hour meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reassured farmers' associations that easier flow of farm credit would be made available to the agricultural sector in the Budget. 
 
A number of associations, including the India Kisan Sabha and Federation of Farmers' Association asked Singh to redress their problems urgently. 
 
Speaking to reporters after the meeting with the Prime Minister, a member of the delegation, P Chengal Reddy, said Singh had assured he would look into the issues and the government was moving towards removing the irritants in the credit delivery system for farmers. 
 
"The prime minister said there was a need for continuous interaction with farmers to study their problems and the government proposed to streamline the credit delivery mechanism," Reddy, who is the chairman of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the Federation of Farmers Association, said. 
 
Water Resources Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told reporters among other things, the issues of problems of credit, refinancing for peasants,

and suicide by farmers were raised by the farmers' associations. 
 
VV Raghavan, president of the All-India Kisan Sabha, said despite the change of government in Andhra Pradesh, as many as 446 farmers had committed suicide and asked the state government to act quickly. 
 
Singh said the new government had taken concrete steps to address the problem of agricultural credit, agricultural prices and technological and marketing support for the farm community. 
 
"I attach great importance to interaction with farmers and people in our villages. There is no monopoly of wisdom in the government," Singh told the delegation. 
 
The government would seek inputs on policy from the grassroot level and there was a need for constant flow of information between the Centre and farmers, he said. The government would also soon bring forward a Bill to address the needs of the acquaculture sector, the prime minister added. 
 
Singh said the government would also give priority to the revitalisation of the cooperative credit system.