Srinagar, July 6: Minister for Agriculture   Ghulam Hassan Mir today said that two innovative Agri Credit Schemes viz. Micro Finance and Kissan Credit Card (KCC) have taken off well in J&K.
 He said the twin schemes form major policy intervention for free flow of credit to the farmers, an official statement said.
 Minister said this while inaugurating of one day workshop on “Enhancing Flow of Credit to Agriculture in J&K”, organised by J&K Bank, Lead Bank, SLBC at SKICC this morning. 
 He said that the KCCS has now emerged as the most effective mode of credit delivery to agriculturists in terms of timeliness, hassle free operations as also adequacy of credit with minimum of transactions costs and documentation.
 Mir said there is a need to upscale its outreach to cover all the eligible farmers not only by creating greater awareness but also through a pro-active attitude of the banks. He said that the banks also need to revisit policy on allocating targets and monitoring their achievements.
 Calling for greater coordination among field functionaries of the banks, Agriculture and Revenue departments, the Minister stressed on updating land records and sensitization of bank staff through training programmes to popularize the scheme in every nook and corner of the state. He asked for exploring the possibilities to lessen the need for documents pertaining to land title by accepting the affidavit.
 Hoping that the workshop will throw up new ideas and solutions for achieving greater flow of credit to the Agriculture sector,   Mir asked to the bankers to consider some measures for effective implementation to achieve this goal, like restructuring the outstaying debt of the farmers, where applicable, in accordance with the guidelines issued by RBI,  timely preparation of special agriculture credit plans focussed on local needs with special thrust on small and marginal farmers, revamping of the co-operative credit structure to improve the efficiency of the credit delivery system in rural areas, coverage of unbanked and under banked areas, encouragement of commercial banks and to carry forward the development of the institutional system and products such as future markets and insurance against weather vagaries to minimize the risk of lending.
 Hailing the role of J&K Bank in overall development of the state, the minister urged the Bank to use its network in the state to implement various schemes for increasing credit flow to the agriculture sector, especially small and marginal farmers. He further asked the commercial banks to explore new profitable activities and avenues for lending to agriculture sector.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 6 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 6 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST