Hyderabad, March 21
Bankers urged to increase loans to agriculture sector, says Telangana Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy
During a State Level Bankers (SLBC) meeting held on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy expressed concern over banks providing only 62 percent of the loans targeted for the agriculture sector in the financial year 2022-23. The minister asked banks to be more generous in providing loans to farmers and to encourage the cultivation of oil palm, which is being promoted by the government.
Reddy also urged banks to focus on establishing agro-based industries and to conduct research on employment opportunities in the sector. He highlighted the government’s efforts to set up agri-based industries in every district and make the dairy sector profitable.
In addition, Reddy suggested that banks should provide loans for groundnut crop production, which has a high demand for products like peanut butter in countries like America, Europe, and Australia. He also recommended that the maximum limit of foreign education bank loans given to students going abroad should be increased from Rs. 7.5 lakhs.
Finance Special CSK Ramakrishna Rao, Secretary Ronald Ross, Agriculture Secretary Raghunandan Rao, SLBC President Amit Jingran, NABARD GM Dr. Y. Haragopal, RBI DGM KS Chakraborty, and others participated in the meeting. Reddy emphasized the need for banks to consider properties and lands in rural areas for loan eligibility and to increase the loans to the agriculture sector.
