The banks had given credit amounting to Rs 2,43,569 crore (Rs 2435.69 billion) in 2007-08 against Rs 2,29,399 crore (Rs 2293.99 billion) in 2006-07 and it was Rs 1,80,485 crore (Rs 1804.85 billion) in 2005-06, Minister of State for Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria said.
Of the total Rs 95,064.16 crore (Rs 950.64 billion) farm loans in the first half of this fiscal, credit from commercial banks stood at Rs 64,988.65 crore (Rs 649.88 billion), co-operative banks at Rs 19,442.33 crore (Rs 19.442 billion), regional rural banks at Rs 10,633.18 crore (Rs 106.33 billion), he added.
The minister said the government has constituted two funds -- Financial Inclusion Fund and Financial Inclusion Technology Fund -- with a corpus of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) each, in accordance with the recommendations of the Rangarajan panel on financial inclusion, to provide monetary services to neglected sections of the population.
The government has also released Rs 11,463.49 crore (Rs 114.63 billion) as on June 30 this year from a rehabilitation package of Rs 16,978.69 crore (Rs 169.78 billion) announced for 31 districts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala which have witnessed maximum number of farmers' suicide, Bhuria said.
According to Nabard, 61.48 lakh loan accounts of farmers have been extended waiver of overdue interest and the loans has been rescheduled in 33.71 lakh farm loan accounts under the rehabilitation package, he said.
In reply to another question, the minister also informed the House that banks have been told to provide loans to farmers for repaying their debts taken from informal sources like money lenders.
"The banks have been advised to earmark 3 per cent of agriculture credit during 2008-09 for swapping the debt taken by the farmers from informal sources," Bhuria said
Also around 26,729 farmers have benefited from subsidiary income activities while 6,17,697 gained from extension services, he added.
Bhuria also said the Expenditure Finance Committee of the Ministry of Power has recommended that 20 pilot projects for energy-efficient water pumping may be taken up for the farm sector.
Six states, including Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra, have been selected for starting the projects, it said. In yet another reply, Bhuria acknowledged the inconvenience
to farmers in the border areas due to fencing at international border to prevent illegal transborder movement. "Farmers entry to the agricultural fields across the fencing is regulated through the entry and exit gates only and access control measures are taken," he said.
However, timing for opening and closing of gates have been fixed, the minister said, adding that security is also provided to farmers.