Govt sanctions INR 17,800 Cr loans, clears INR 2424 Cr under PMFBY insurance claim

NEW DELHI, 16 April 2020: Under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) saturation drive has been initiated by DAC&FW in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services to cover all PM- KISAN beneficiaries. So far  83 lakh applications received out of which 18.26 lakh applications have been sanctioned for loans worth INR 17,800 cr.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), insurance claims amounting to INR 2424 crores have been disbursed to the beneficiary farmers in 12 States in the country.

The government has also released INR 16,927 crore has been released so far under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme during the lockdown period from 24.3.2020 to about 8.46 crore farmer.

During Rabi season 2020, NAFED has procured 124,125 metric tonnes pulses and oilseeds on MSP totaling of INR 606.52 crore, this has benefitted 91,710 farmers.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PM-GKY) about 5516 metric tonnes of pulses has been dispatched for delivery to the States/UTs.

The validity of star rating certification of accredited nurseries extended by National Horticulture Board (NHB) to 30 Sept 2020 to ensure the availability of quality planting material to farmers.

The due date for conversion of Agri-Gold Loan and other Agri Account into KCC Account was  31.03.2020. In view of difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the due date has been extended up to 31.05.2020 with the commensurate extension of Interest Subvention (IS) and Prompt Repayment Incentive (PRI) benefit against such account till 31.05.2020.

The decision has been taken (on 30.03.2020) for providing 2% Interest Subvention (IS) to Banks and 3% Prompt Repayment Incentive (PRI) to farmers for the extended period of repayment of loans up to 31.05.2020 or date of actual repayment date whichever is earlier, for short terms crop loan up to INR 3 lakh per farmers given by Banks @ 7% p.a., which have become due or shall become due between  1 March 2020 and 31 May 2020. 

Module of Uberisation of logistics aggregator has been recently launched on e-NAM Platform. More than 7.76 lakh trucks and 1.92 lakh transporters are already linked to this module.

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has put in lot of efforts and issues related to transportation, curfew passes, packaging units are being resolved. Exports of all major products i.e rice, groundnut, processed food, meat, poultry, dairy and organic products has started.

India had a good crop of wheat, in surplus of its own demand. On specific demand from countries, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) has exported 50,000 metric tonnes wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 metric tonnes wheat to Lebanon under G2G arrangement.

Flexible approach adopted: digital copies of Phyto Sanitary Certificates being accepted with an undertaking from the importer for submission of original when received. Similar process for exports is also followed and SOP for the same has been issued.

A total of 9,759 Phytosanitary certificates were issued for export and 2,728 consignments were released for imports.

The validation of pack houses, rice mills, processing units, treatment facilities, fumigation agencies, PEQ facilities, etc. which have expired in the lockdown period due to COVID-19 situation has been extended.

Further, 33 Import Permits for import of pesticides, 309 certificates for export of pesticides and 1,324 certificates to facilitate Indigenous manufacturers of pesticides were issued.

The All India Seed Requirement and Availability of Kharif-2020 is circulated to different stakeholders, Breeder Seed Allocation of Kharif-2020 and Breeder Seed Indent of Kharif-2021 is finalized during this period. During this lockdown period, 2.70 Lakh quintals seed of cereals, millets, pulses, etc was moved and 42.50 Lakh cotton seed packets were also moved in Northern India especially for Haryana and Punjab.