A series of farmer suicides in Idukki district seem to have prompted the State government to come up with debt-relief measures for the farming community in the State.

A special cabinet meeting held on Tuesday at Thiruvananthapuram has decided to extend the moratorium on loan-recovery proceedings on agricultural loans to December 31 from the earlier deadline of October 31.

The government had announced the one-year moratorium on agricultural loans in August in the wake of floods. It was also decided to raise the loan limit from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh.

The government’s decision will be applicable to loans availed for agri-related and allied activities, the meeting noted. For long-term crop loans such as rubber, coffee and coconut, the meeting decided to give up to 9 per cent interest and the amount will be disbursed from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

The meeting also decided to entrust both agriculture and planning departments to find ways to include commercial banks under the purview of the Agriculture Debt Recovery Commission.

An amount of ₹85 crore has also been sanctioned as compensation for crop-loss caused by natural calamities.

The compensation for crop losses increased 100 per cent from the levels fixed in 2015.

comment COMMENT NOW