This kharif, the enthusiasm of poor tribal farmers to till their undulating hilly lands in Adilabad’s agency area will be doubled, thanks to a decreased dependence on private moneylenders. The Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Utnoor, has ensured that banks operating in the tribal belt extend crop loans in tune with the scale of finance instead of a lowly sum usually based on the assessment of the bank officials in a given area.
The ITDA, under its Project Officer R.V. Karnan, has also ensured that banks give loans to all farmers who have been given rights on forest lands under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. This will ensure crop loans to a few thousand uncovered tribal farmers for the first time this season. There are about 40 commercial banks operating in the district, but the Telangana Grameen Bank (TGB) with its 93 branches, half of them being in the agency area, accounts for disbursal of about 40 per cent of the crop loan target under the annual credit plan. Its customer base, however, is even higher at close to 60 per cent.
The crop loan target set for Adilabad district during the current year is Rs. 2,533 crore as against the last year’s Rs. 2,280 crore. The TGB’s share in this comes to about Rs. 1,200 crore as against the last year’s Rs. 917 crore. “We are giving minimum of Rs. 20,000 and a maximum of Rs. 50,000 as crop loan to tribal farmers. We are organising loan melas for the benefit of the uncovered farmers every Thursday as per the understanding with the ITDA and hope to reach saturation level by the end of the season,” said TGB Adilabad Regional Manager P.R.V. Ramchander Rao.
“The move will certainly remove disparity in financial assistance between non-tribal and tribal farmers. Besides, the dependence of the latter on private financiers and middlemen will decrease considerably,” he adds as he concurs with the opinion held by the ITDA Project Officer.
The fact of poor gullible tribal farmers getting sucked into the deadly vortex of private financing has become more real and threatening as some micro finance companies have entered the field. One such company started its operations in Jainoor and Sirpur (U) mandals in March.
With banks extending enhanced crop loan to almost all the tribal farmers, their dependence on moneylenders has come down considerably
