Agricultural banks begin providing agricultural loans for the Maha season

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Agricultural banks begin providing agricultural loans for the Maha season

Monday, October 17, 2022, 11:29 a.m. SL time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

October 17, Colombo: Issuance of agricultural loans to farmers by agricultural banks for the next Maha season has started recently (14) at Netolpitiya agricultural service center.

Last Friday, the Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Conservation of Forest Resources, Mahinda Amaraweera symbolically granted crop loans for the 2022/23 Maha season to 11 beneficiaries.

Each farmer received a loan of Rs.50,000. These agricultural loans are granted within the framework of the agricultural bank pilot project.

During the Maha season, 100 percent of the paddy fields amounting to 814,678 hectares are expected to be cultivated.

During this year, farmers' banks disbursed Rs 7,124 million to 207,103 farmers. As of August 2022, 154,641 farmers have repaid their agricultural loans, amounting to Rs 5,472 million, while 49,385 farmers have yet to take action to repay their loans of Rs 1,576 million.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to cancel 688 million rupees of loans taken by farmers from state banks. Canceled farmer loans must be returned to the respective banks by the Treasury within two years.

The amount allocated by the government for the implementation of this proposal is 350 million rupees. Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera mentioned that the government has taken action to provide this relief to 28,259 farmers who have taken loans from state banks to grow paddy in fields of 02 hectares or less.

The minister also pointed out that the government's decision to cancel agricultural loans will bring great relief to farmers even though the country is in economic crisis.