Bhubaneswar: Farm loan uptake is increasing in Odisha. Registration of farmers to take part in the paddy procurement process is also growing in 2018-19 crop season as against the previous one.

According to the state cooperative department principal secretary Ranjana Chopra farm loan of Rs 6,896.19 crore has been disbursed to 17,95,569 farmers during the Kharif 2018 crop season as against the target of Rs 6,000 crore. Farm loan of Rs 1314.09 crore has already been disbursed to 3,40,118 farmers for current Rabi season as against the target of Rs 5,600 crore. The Rabi target will be met by February 15, she said.

The number of farmers registered for paddy procurement for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) has increased over the last season. As many as 12, 48,202 farmers have registered their names in various mandis during the KMS 2018-19 as against 11,20,252 farmers registered for KMS 2017-18. The farmers registration process is yet to complete, said the secretary.

Stating that the paddy procurement has already started in various parts of the state, the secretary said that 659 PACS/ LAMPCS have opened 1005 paddy procurement centers as on 17.12.2018 and procured 6,72,476 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy from 1,06,851 farmers. This year 2603 PACS/LAMPCS would be engaged to procure paddy by opening 3296 paddy procurement centers. The paddy procurement target for the PACS/LAMPS is 34.91 lakh MT in the first phase of this crop season.

The state government has recognised 1.01,802 Joint Liabilities Group (JLG) so as to provide loan to small and marginal and also landless farmers. The JLGs have been provided loan of Rs 645.10 crore . During the 9 months ending in December 31,2018, about 49,125 JLGs have been provided loan to the tune of Rs 275.76 crore.