Bhubaneswar: A huge 86.56% are small marginal and medium farmers among the 6,78,430 farmers who had defaulted on repayment of their loan arrears as on 31st of March this year in Odisha.
As on March 31st, this year as many as 6,78,430 farmers across 30 districts in the State had defaulted on repayment of their loan arrears, informed Cooperation Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain in the Odisha Assembly today in a written reply to a question from BJP legislator Nauri Naik.
Out of the aforementioned farmers, 5, 87,240 are small marginal and medium farmers, Swain added.
The Minister stated that farmers after repaying their arrear crop loans within the stipulated period upon availing fresh crop loans as per their needs are provided with interest-free loans up to Rs 50,000 under the interest subsidy scheme.
Further, farmers are sensitized for availing loans starting from Rs 50,001 up to Rs 3 lakh at an affordable interest rate of 2%, the Minister added.