Farmers misuse 'late loans'

farmers thronged the bank at Indravelli for crop loans 

A majority of the farmers misuse the amount of ‘late loaning’ they take from the banks as a crop loan, usually granted in the month of July or August for Agricultural purposes.

Farmers throng to banks at a time when all the major agriculture operations are over except weeding- and are then found using the money for distinctly for non- agriculture purposes, such as alcohol consumption, celebrating seasonal festivals and visiting temples.      

They also use the money to repay the high interest they owe moneylenders who brokered the crop loan for them from the banks and who also gave them the money  to clear the pending crop loan.

Farmers generally take a loan from moneylenders and middlemen to purchase seeds, fertilizers and pesticides in May month itself since most banks don’t start giving crop loans in May. It is thus a nexus between private moneylenders and intermediaries and bank mangers.

After purchasing the seeds and other requirements , the farmers first approach the money leaders for the money to clear the pending bank loan so that they can apply for fresh loans from the bank. The moneylenders charge 2-5 percent interest for 15 days to a one- month period.

The farmers clear the pending crop loan amount and take a fresh loan and repay the loan and interest to the moneylender: the amount that remains is used for the celebrating festivals, such as Bonalu and pochamma.

A farmer Pothi Reddy of Kuchulapur village in Boath mandal said farmers who take crop loan in July or August use only 20-30 percent amount of it for agriculture while misusing the main part of it becoming indebted to private money-lenders and banks.

He pointed out that bankers usually delayed disbursing fresh crop loan once the farmer had cleared the pending crop loan with his money but they will give crop loan amount immediately if you go along with a middleman or broker and money lender.

According to sources, all the bank put together have so far disbursed Rs 1,000 crore to 1.30 lakh farmers out of  Rs 3,252 crore credit planned for the 2016-17 while the bankers achieved only 74 percent of their credit plan by disbursing Rs 2,151 crore to 3.46 lakh farmers out of total credit of Rs 2,907 crore for the year 2015-16.           

State fails to rescue tenant farmers

Adivasi farmers tilling the land 

The State government has failed to issue loan eligibility cards (LEC) to the tenant farmers enabling them to get crop loans from banks for Kharif-2016. 

Most of the tribal tenant farmers have failed to get the crop loans, as they do not have an agreement as evidence of taking the land on lease from the landowner. 

The state government promised to ensure Rs 25,000 bank crop loan to each tenant farmer for Kharif season.   

The move was initiated following the reports that landowners getting the benefit of the compensation for the crop damage and bank loans and subsidies instead tenant farmers who actually cultivated land taking the land on lease.

Village revenue officers (VROs) entrusted with the assignment of conducting a survey to identify the tenant farmers.

The state government has issued LEC cards to more than 3,000 tenant farmers but bank crop loans total Rs 10 lakh given only to 243 tenant farmers in the year 2015 in the Adilabad district.

Efforts are being made to increase the scale of finance to the tenant farmers and to give loaning to a number of tenant farmers.

Kiran Vissa, the representative of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, said tenant farmers would get befit of crop loans only when they get loans before the sowing but most of them did not get, as they were not issued Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC) by the state government.

He said, 70 percent are tenant farmers among the total farmers who were committed suicide in the Telangana and issuing LEC would be the first step towards  preventing farmers suicides especially cotton farmers.

It is learned that there are more than 10 lakh tenant farmers in the Telangana but among them, the state government was promised to issue LEC to only 4.15 lakh tenant farmers for this Kharif in the state. But, the state government not even issued 50,000 LEC so far to the tenant farmers this season in the state.    

Tenant farmers were more prone to committing suicide if they had incurred crop loss as they fully depend on rain-fed crops and take loans from moneylenders as most of them did not get institutional support.            

There are more than 1 lakh tenant farmers and total farmers are nearly 4 lakh in the district. It is found even the tenant farmers is cultivating cotton though the risk was  high in the cultivation of cotton and also investment cost when compared to other traditional crops.

Raymond Peter, Commissioner of Survey settlements and land records issued orders to the Agriculture and revenue departments Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC) to the tenant farmers and ensure each tenant farmer get more than Rs 25,000 bank loan. 

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