During the kharif season from April to September this year, nearly 41 lakh farmers in Maharashtra received crop loans totaling 40.38 lakh crore. Despite this significant disbursement, it falls short by 24% of the targeted amount set for the kharif season 2023-24, which was Rs 51.56 lakh crore. The intended beneficiaries were 49.68 lakh farmers across the state.
Official data, obtained from the Ministry of Cooperation, indicates that financial institutions disbursed Rs 41.53 lakh crore to 40.38 lakh farmers, achieving 76% of the target. While the farmers’ target was met at 84%, 24% of the intended allocation remained undistributed, leaving 16% of eligible farmers without their share.
Departmental sources commented on the results, stating, “It is satisfactory. But it could have been better.”
The shortfall in meeting the absolute target for both crop loan disbursement and farmer coverage is attributed to public sector banks (PSBs) and private sector banks. In contrast, district cooperative banks have performed comparatively better in accomplishing their given targets.
For PSBs, the target for crop disbursement was Rs 22.92 lakh crore to 20.21 lakh farmers. However, in the past seven months, they disbursed Rs 15.16 lakh crore to 11.14 lakh farmers, achieving 64% of the crop loan allocation and covering 55% of the targeted farmers.
Private sector banks, with a target of Rs 5.74 lakh crore, disbursed Rs 3.31 lakh crore, reaching 56% of the target. This covered 1.81 lakh farmers against the intended 4.29 lakh, representing 42%.
District cooperative banks, on the other hand, disbursed Rs 17.74 lakh crore to 24.35 lakh farmers against a target of Rs 19.27 lakh crore to 21.51 lakh farmers.
The annual crop loan for both kharif and rabi seasons is distributed among farmers across 34 districts, excluding Mumbai city and Mumbai Suburbs.
Notably, eight districts failed to cross 70% crop loan disbursement, including Ahmednagar (65%), Gondia (56%), Hingoli (68%), Jalna (66%), Nagpur (59%), Palghar (54%), and Raigad (62%).
Conversely, some districts exceeded their targets. In Beed, 17.83 lakh farmers received a crop loan of Rs 1.43 lakh crore, surpassing the target of 12.42 lakh farmers. Similarly, in Bhandara, all 94,388 farmers received the allocated Rs 56,131 crore.
In Jalgaon, 25.56 lakh farmers exceeded the target of 18 lakh, although the disbursed amount was Rs 1.93 lakh crore, slightly below the target of Rs 2.21 lakh crore.
Sangli district saw 15.85 lakh farmers taking loans worth Rs 15 lakh crore, successfully covering the given target. Even in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri, the number of farmers who received loans exceeded the predetermined targets.
