BHUBANESHWAR: With no significant improvement in the cash flow from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), cooperative banks of the state are finding it difficult to meet the increasing credit demands of the farmers for rabi operation.
The Central Cooperatives Banks (CCBs) of the state is reported to have received Rs 12.05 crore from the RBI today. The federal bank had provided Rs 13.11 crore on December 16 and Rs 9.25 crore on
December 15.
Estimating the daily credit needs of the farmers at Rs 65-70 crore, the state government had requested the regional office of the RBI to provide cash to the tune of Rs 70 crore to the CCBs.
Apart from crop loan, the farmers are anxiously waiting to get their crop insurance claims. The government has already deposited Rs 1,776 crore towards insurance claim of farmers for Kharif crop-2015
which will be disbursed through cooperative banks.
Cooperation Secretary Manoj Ahuja today took stock of the situation with secretaries of CCBs through video conference here.
The cooperative credit structures which provide 65 percent of the total crop loan have extended crop loan to the tune of Rs 487 crore till today.
While the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) are facing acute liquidity crisis, the RBI restriction on cash withdrawal to Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) has further
aggravated the situation. Most of the loanee farmers are members of PACS which are critical for the last mile in unbanked rural areas.
"The primary cooperative credit structures are allowed to withdraw Rs 24,000 is a week. This is too small an amount to meet the credit needs of the farmer members," said a senior officer of the Odisha
State Cooperative Bank (OSCB).
The state government has set a target to advance Rs 5,000 crore of
crop loan to the farmers during the current Rabi season.
"The government may not meet the crop loan target, if the cash crunch situation continues," the OSCB sources said.
There is a good demand for crop loan as the interest rate is very low. The farmers are being provided crop loan at a nominal rate of interest of 1 percent.