Haryana farmers to get loan for livestock, fishery

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 18

Come December, farmers engaged in dairy, fishery and livestock in Haryana will be able to get working capital loans through Kisan Credit Card (KCC). This new facility would meet the farmers’ short-term credit requirements for rearing of animals, birds, fish, shrimps and other aquatic organisms. According to state government officials, the move would boost white and blue revolution in the state.

“The move to issue  new and separate KCC for animal husbandry and fisheries will be game-changer, specially for boosting milk production in the state of Haryana wherein per capita milk availability is the second highest in the country and love for milk is inherent custom and tradition,” said LV Prabhakar, executive director, Punjab National Bank, during the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meet today.

In Haryana, there are around 45 lakh buffaloes and 18.80 lakh cows across all age groups. The per capita availability of the milk in the state is 1,015 gram which is the second highest in the country after Punjab.

It is an uphill task for the dairy and other livestock farmers to secure working capital loans from banks. To help them meet their capital requirements, in the interim Budget of 2019-20, the Union government had announced its decision to extend the facility of KCC to animal husbandry and fisheries to help them meet their working capital requirements. 

In pursuance of the Budget announcement, the RBI in its notification dated February 3, 2019, has framed guidelines for extending the KCC facility for working capital requirements for activities related to animal husbandry & fisheries.  In accordance with the guidelines of RBI, the scale of finance has since been approved by State Level Technical Committee based on local cost worked out on the basis of per acre/per unit/per animal etc.

In Haryana, such committee meetings in all districts have been held in coordination with the SLBC and HARCO Bank.  Now, the scale of finance for all districts has been approved.

To boost the bankers’ confidence, which would help the dairy farmers secure working capital loans, the Haryana Government is also in process of insuring 10 lakh milch animals and generating animal IDs containing photographs of the animal and its owner.

“We have already insured 1.6 lakh animals and our target is to insure 10 lakh animals by the end of this fiscal year,” said Sunil Gulati, Additional Chief Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Department, Haryana.

He advised the banks to get scheme customised in accordance with the guidelines issued by Nabard and formulate the scheme code in the respective CBS system of the bank without any further delay.

Acceding to the request, the bankers have agreed to roll out the scheme by November 30.

According to the bankers, the government’s move will not only streamline the credit line system but also boost the milk production in the state.