The secretary also stressed the need to streamline the e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi online platform, create awareness among farmers about pledge financing, review depository charges and increase warehouse registrations beyond the current 5,800.The secretary added that creating awareness about the CGS-NPF scheme, making National e-Repository Limited and Countrywide Commodity Repository Limited repository charges reasonable and working towards registering more warehouses need to be prioritised.A HELPING HAND TO SMALL FARMERSThe scheme aims to provide credit facilities to small farmers to prevent them from distress sellingCurrently banks are reluctant to provide agriculture loans to farmers in the absence of a collateralUnder the revamped credit guarantee scheme, banks will issue agri loans against warehouse receipts (e-NWR)Farmers can deposit their produce at the nearest warehouse to obtain the e-NWRFarmers can sell the produce only after the price goes up. In the meantime, they can get a loan over their produce to invest in the next cycle of cropsCurrently, the e-NWR lending is mere Rs 4000 CR against the potential of Rs 5.5 lakh crore. Most of the lending is done by traders and big farmers.
Source link
