West Bengal has been missing its agriculture disbursement target for three years in a row. The unavailability of data on farmers who have still not been covered under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) is said to be one of the primary reasons for lower agricultural disbursement in the State.

FY19 target

In 2018-19, the State was able to achieve only around 71 per cent of its targeted disbursement under the agriculture sector. The State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) had set a target to disburse close to ₹64,000 crore worth of agri loans to farmers in FY19. However, banks were able to disburse only around ₹46,000 crore. Forty to fifty per cent of the farmers in West Bengal were not covered under the KCC, and hence, could not get access to agricultural credit, said a senior SLBC official.

A good number of farmers in the State have very small landholdings, and hence, it becomes difficult to map them. As per the census, there are close to 71 lakh farm households in the State, going by the agricultural land holding data; however, of these, only around 52 lakh are active. Of these (52 lakh), only 31-32 lakh farmers hold KCC. The SLBC in West Bengal has, therefore, set up a special sub-committee for agriculture to monitor and prepare a list of farmers who have not been covered under the KCC.

“A survey has to be undertaken on the number of uncovered farmers.

“The sub-committee, which also comprises officials from the State Agricultural Department, will be entrusted with the responsibility of preparing a list and giving it to the SLBC,” the official told BusinessLine .

The sub-committee would be able to prepare the list by July-end. Once the list is prepared, banks would be in a position to ramp up their agri loan portfolio. In FY20, banks are looking to disburse close to ₹55,000 crore of agri loans, a growth of around 20 per cent over the disbursement last year. While the State has missed its agri disbursement target, it has, however, exceeded its targeted disbursement in the MSME sector, which was set at ₹50,000 crore for FY19.

“Banks collectively disbursed close to ₹56,000 crore worth of MSME loans, higher than the targeted disbursement of ₹50,000 crore last year. The target for this year has been pegged at around ₹68,000 crore, a growth of around 20 per cent,” the official said.

Overall disbursements across agriculture, MSME, and other priority sectors are likely to grow by 27 per cent this fiscal.

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