Kolkata: Bengal government is going to set up financial institutions in 700 villages across the state to provide loans to farmers at a lower interest rate.
The process of setting up financial institutions has already been started in some parts. The state Cooperation department will carry out the project.
While speaking at the 6th Agro Protech 2018, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at Science City auditorium, state Cooperation minister Arup Roy on Monday said that these financial institutions would come up in 250 gram panchayat areas to provide loans to the farmers.
The primary objective of the scheme is to improve the socio-economic condition of people involved in various agricultural sectors. The minister also said that the state government has already been providing various equipment to the farmers completely free of cost, to help them increase their produces.
"Following the instruction of our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, our department had formed cooperatives throughout the state to provide loans to the farmers as well. The total amount of agricultural loans disbursed by various cooperatives in the state reached Rs 542 crore last year. We have set a target to take the disbursement amount up to Rs 1,000 crore this year," Roy said.
He also mentioned that the total amount of disbursement of agricultural loans remained at Rs 5,500 crore last year. To ensure that the farmers get a platform to sell their produces, the state government has constructed Kisan Mandis or Kisan Bazars in different blocks.
Sufala Bangla outlets have been constructed so that farmers get a better price for their products. The average income of the farmers has gone up to 2-3 times of what they used to get during the erstwhile Left Front government, the minister said.
"After coming to power, our Chief Minister laid enormous emphasis on the agricultural sector and launched a host of new initiatives to improve the condition of the farmers. Earlier, the farmers had to take loans from the money lenders at high interest rates," Roy maintained.
Swapan Dutta, agricultural scientist and former Pro Vice-Chancellor, Viswa Bharati University, said that the marketing strategy has been developed in the state, which has proven to be extremely beneficial for the farmers.
Moloy Ghatak, state minister for Judicial, Labour and Law, also addressed the session, saying that the Mamata Banerjee government had introduced Kisan credit cards for the farmers. It was Ghatak's tenure as the Agricultural minister of the state, when the State government had received its first "Krishi Karman" award from the Centre in 2013.