In a push to make agriculture more profit-oriented, the Madhya Pradesh government provided Rs. 9,000 crore in loans to 30 lakh farmers on zero percent interest rate in 2012.
Stating this, an official release said in Bhopal on Friday that the state government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has taken a number of key decisions to make agriculture profitable during the last nine years.
During the earlier regime, crop loans were given at the rate of 15-16 percent interest. The present BJP-ruled government reduced it to seven per cent in 2003, 5 per cent in 2008, 3 per cent in 2010 and zero percent in 2011 and 2012 for purchasing fertilisers and seeds, benefitting many farmers.
Due to extension of crop loans to farmers at zero percent interest rate, percentage of recovery of loans in the cooperative sector also increased to 78.04 percent in 2012.
Under another significant decision in the cooperative sector, over 45 lakh farmers were provided Kisan Credit Cards.
