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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The permanent debt trap of Gujarat -Rutam Vora

The permanent debt trap of Gujarat -Rutam Vora

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published Published on Nov 24, 2017   modified Modified on Nov 24, 2017
-The Hindu Business Line

Farmers have been borrowing from banks to repay lenders and reversing the cycle

Ahmedabad:
In the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, a saying goes: “A farmer is always indebted. He is born in debt and dies with a debt. What matters is how he manages this debt in his life.”

There is a skew in Gujarat’s water resource distribution. Saurashtra covers 31 per cent of the State’s landmass but gets only only 9 per cent of the water resources, while it is even worse for Kutch at 2 per cent of the eater share for a geographical spread of 31 per cent.

Limited water availability makes farmers more dependent on rains; little wonder that over 52 per cent of the State’s farming is rain-fed. This makes the farms vulnerable to the vagaries of the climate, insect/pest attacks, and a resultant drop in yields, leading to financial loss.

Farm borrowings

As a support for the farmers, the State government recently announced waiver of interest on crop loans. While the average crop loan interest rate is 7 per cent, a Central subsidy of 4 per cent and a State sop of 2 per cent make loans up to ?2.99 lakh almost interest-free. Yet, experts claim, farmers are not greatly benefited, revealing the model of farm borrowing.

“To qualify for these subsidies, a farmer must make timely repayment of the loan. To get the subsidy, farmers borrow from private lenders at a much higher rate to repay banks. This makes Gujarat’s farmers credit-worthy for the banks,” says Sagar Rabari, a farmer activist from Gujarat Khedut Samaj.

As on June 2017, agricultural advances in Gujarat stood at ?76,232 crore, which grew by 10.32 per cent in the last one year. About 6 per cent of these advances is gross non-performing assets.

As per a report of the State Level Bankers’ Committee, agriculture advances jumped 33 per cent since 2015, to ?72,212 crore now from ?54,288 crore in March 2015. The gross NPA is 5.76 per cent or ?4,390 crore of these advances.

“Gujarat’s farmers are in as bad a condition as their counterparts in other States. But there is a difference: the bad debt or NPAs of farmers are low inspite of high level of advances. This is because they repay on time; that , they may have a debt-pile with private lenders is another story. To escape this trap, farmers often take another loan from a bank, within days of repaying. And, the cycle continues,” Rabari said. As bank borrowing is limited to ?2.99 lakh (without a guarantor), it makes it feasible for farmers to get a fresh loan immediately after clearing the previous one.

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The Hindu Business Line, 21 November, 2017, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/the-permanent-debt-trap-of-gujarat/article9968786.ece


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