The State government has introduced issue of Certificate of Cultivation (CoC) this kharif season to tenant farmers in an effort to improve the grant of crop loans from banks to them. The loans were given on the basis of loan eligibility cards (LEC) in the last season.
The CoC simultaneously deals with extending three benefits to the farmer -- crop loan, insurance and input subsidy.
In the long run, the State government wants to ensure loans to the cultivator irrespective of whether he is owner or tenant. Towards this end, Agriculture Department officials are instructed to record details of cultivated land with crops, survey numbers and GPS coordinates.
The idea is to upload the data and provide access to the bank officials concerned so that when the farmer goes to the bank, loans can be sanctioned on the basis of the data. However, this is still in a very initial stage, say sources.
Still a long way
Of the 4.5 lakh farmers in the district, an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 are tenant farmers. The exact number of tenant farmers is not available.
In 2015-16, though around 10,000 LECs were issued, 2,143 tenants were given a loan of Rs.3.78 crore.
Against this, the 15,000 target for 2016-17 appears to be stiff.
This year so far 10,243 LECs were issued or renewed and 9,000 CoCs were issued, according to sources in the Agriculture Department.
But bankers encounter several problems. In many cases the owner of the land would have availed himself of the loan facility and with loan on the land outstanding bank officials cannot advance credit again, says Visakhapatnam Lead District Manager D. Sarat Babu. Besides default rate is high among tenant farmers.
CoC better document
"The mandal agriculture officer goes to the field, records the names of the owner, tenant farmer, crop, area sown, extent etc in the 13-column CoC. In some case the owner may be giving only a part of the land for cultivation,” he says.
The LEC contains mainly the name of the tenant farmer and survey number.
