Co-operative institutions in the State disbursed crop loans of Rs. 1,668.90 crore to farmers till the end of December.
The government fixed the target of Rs. 2,000 crore for the current financial year (2009-2010).
On Thursday Ko.Si. Mani, Cooperation Minister, held a meeting with Principal Secretary (Food, Civil Supplies and Cooperation) K. Shanmugam and other officials at the Secretariat.
An official release issued after the meeting stated that loans to the tune of Rs. 428.17 crore were issued to 2,07,990 new farmer-borrowers. Of 10,000 Joint Liability Groups (JLG) to be formed this year, 9,625 JLGs were set up. They were given crop loans of Rs. 119.25 crore while medium-term loans of Rs. 3 crore were provided to 169 farmer JLGs.
So far in the financial year, the cooperative institutions distributed 6.6 lakh tonnes of fertilizers and 2.4 lakh tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). The institutions had a sufficient stock of fertilizers.