Disbursing of cultivation loans for coming Maha begins

By Ifham Nizam 

The release of cultivation loans by the Govi Jana banks to farmers for the upcoming Maha season started yesterday at the Netolpitiya Agrarian Development Centre.

The total land area to cultivated with paddy in the coming Maha season is 814,678 hectares.

The issuance of crop loans for the 2022/23 Maha season commenced under the participation of Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, Mahinda Amaraweera. Rs. 50,000 each was issued by the minister to 11 loan beneficiaries. The issuance of this crop loan is done under the Agricultural Bank Pilot Project.

The Govi Jana banks have released Rs. 7124 million to 207,103 farmers during this year.

Some 154,641 farmers have repaid their crop loans, amounting to Rs.5472 million by August 2022.

During that period, 49,385 farmers have not yet taken steps to pay back Rs. 1576 million.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe had decided to write off Rs. 688 million from the loans taken by the farmers from the state banks, Minister Amaraweera said.

The banks which have written off loans will be reimbursed by the Treasury within two years.

The amount allocated by the government for the implementation of the loan scheme in the current year is Rs. 350 million.

Amaraweera said that the government had taken steps to provide this relief to 28,259 farmers who had drawn loans from state banks to cultivate paddy of two hectares or less.

The minister also emphasised that the decision taken by the government to write off the crop loans will bring great relief to farmers even though there is an economic crisis in the country.