Gujarat doubles farm lending in 2006-07

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: Even as there has been remarkable growth in agricultural loan disbursals in the last four years by banks in Gujarat the total agriculture loans in the state have doubled to Rs10,468-crore in 2006-07 fiscal from Rs4,735-crore in 2003-04. The agriculture loan disbursals to farmers in Gujarat thus have increased by five times in last 10 years. This comes in the wake of Manmohan Singh government's emphasizing on doubling agriculture credit. The agriculture loan disbursal has been steadily rising for the past ten years and last three years saw robust growth in agri-loans as banks stepped up their efforts to double agriculture credit as directed by Centre.

Gujarat has maintained average 20 per cent annualized growth in agriculture loan disbursals over last decade and the average growth rate of the same was 30 per cent for the past three years. The average growth rate of agriculture loans disbursals has also remained higher than the benchmark set by the Centre Government.

Total agriculture loans extended by banks in Gujarat increased from Rs4,375-crore to Rs6,020-crore in 2004-05 and further increased to Rs8,468-crore and Rs10,468-crore in 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively. It may also be mentioned here that Gujarat has also surpassed the target of extending agriculture credit. The target of agriculture loans disbursals for the fiscal 2006-07 was fixed at Rs10,027-crore, as against which banks in Gujarat have extended total Rs10,468-crore during 2006-07.