Food Minister Piyush Goyal Launches e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi for Easy Farmer Loans on Monday. This platform will allow farmers to take loans against their produce stored in registered warehouses.
Goyal said that with the launch of this gateway, farmers will easily get loans at an interest rate of 7% without any guarantee. He said that the Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority will soon reduce the security deposit, currently set at three percent of the current stock value, by one percent, to be paid by the warehouse owner. Loans given to farmers will be based on the Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR).
Piyush Goyal Launches e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi for Easy Farmer Loans
Currently, there are more than 5,500 registered warehouses under the WDRA, while the total number of agricultural warehouses is estimated to be around one lakh. Goyal emphasized the need to modernize agriculture through technology to make the sector an attractive business. He said that even after taking a loan, farmers will be able to sell their produce in warehouses at the right time without being forced to sell their crops in a crisis. The digital gateway will also provide farmers with options for interest rates and loan amounts through participating banks.
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The minister announced the start of the world’s largest grain storage capacity program in the cooperative sector. He has instructed the WDRA to register established warehouses of cooperative societies without any charge. He said that warehouses built by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), and WDRA are modern, but he has asked them to make their quality standards even more stringent. He also stressed the need to modernize warehouses operated by state agencies.
