East Godavari District Collector Neetu Prasad has said Rs 585 crore worth kharif crop loans have been distributed to farmers out of Rs 3,309 crore earmarked for loans this financial year.

"The banks are ready to provide crop loans. The loans will be sanctioned to the farmers whose crop loan accounts are renewed and those who are ready to renew their accounts in the district," Prasad said here yesterday after a meeting with bankers and and district officials.

For the initial period after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh there were some problems, but now they have been resolved by assessing the usage of various resources available in the district for development, she said.

During the meeting, she reviewed the loans for various sectors. She directed agriculture officials to prepare a list of 18,000 tenant farmers who are eligible for loans from banks and urged the bankers to provide crop loans to farmers and also crop insurance.

Prasad also directed officials to prepare a comprehensive report on poultry industry which is inter-connected with agriculture, to increase the budget allocation for this year.

She said so far Rs 137.29 crore worth input subsidy was deposited for farmers whose crops were lost due to cyclone in the district last year.

This year, there is a target of Rs 1,273 crore worth loans for 40,171 self-help groups in East Godavari, out of which 1,802 SHGs have received loans worth Rs 59 crore.

On the occasion, Andhra Bank DGM VS Seshagiri Rao said the new loans sanctioned were delayed due to lack of clarity on rescheduling /waiver of crop loans and DWCRA group loans.

Source - http://www.dnaindia.com/