MYSURU: Already battered by severe drought, farmers are facing a fresh problem: getting loans from agriculture cooperative societies to start farming activities. The cooperatives have introduced a new condition to sanction loans, including a clause on mortgaging land to them. This has thrown farmers into a tizzy, especially small and marginal farmers, who want to start sowing this season.
They are running from pillar to post to gather their documents, like mutation, Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC), Encumbrance Certificate (EC) besides Aadhaar, and bank passbook. The landowner also needs to pay Rs 600 as charges towards membership in the cooperative society, besides service fee and other expenses to get a simple mortgage registered with the society to avail short-term loans.
Shivamurthy, a farmer, said the procedure costs them more the Rs 2,500 and also takes up three to four days. He said that they pay the money demanded by touts at the sub-register office, in the fear that they may create more problems.
There is a demand for fresh loans as these cooperatives are giving interest-free loans of Rs 1 lakh for less then a year. Many farmers who want to make use of this facility are getting their land mortgaged. Linganna, secretary of Agro Agriculture Primary Credit Cooperative Society, said that they have issued 55 fresh loans after land was mortgaged to their society. He said that higher authorities directed them to do before processing and releasing the loan. Mamballi Nanjundaswamy, president of Primary Credit Cooperative Society said that it was adding to the problems of small and marginal farmers who are already in deep financial crisis.
One farmer said that he spent Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 on the procedure to get their loans. State Sugarcane Growers’ Association president Kurbur Shantha Kumar said that the government was harassing farmers who suffered huge losses due to various issues, including drought. He said that farmers, who used to take loans from a number of banks, now find their hands tied and can’t take a second loan as the property is mortgaged to the society. District Cooperative Registrar Umesh said that mortgaging property to avail of a loan is a formality and maintained that it is already in practice.