Small and marginal farmers in Uttar Pradesh will now be able to avail long-term loans at a reduced interest rate of six per cent under the Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced this at a programme held in Lucknow on Wednesday.
On the occasion, the e-portal of the Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana was launched, along with the Urvarak Setu mobile app aimed at ensuring the easy, systematic and timely availability of fertilisers and seeds to farmers. The mobile app of the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Database Centre (UPCDC) was also launched. Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Union Minister M. Muralidhar and several other leaders were present at the programme.
The Chief Minister said that if the country's farmers are prosperous, India will be prosperous. He said the state government has made sugarcane price payments worth Rs 3.30 lakh crore over the past nine years.
Referring to the state's cooperative banks, Adityanath said that before 2017, 16 cooperative banks had become inactive and their licences had been seized. Thousands of crores of rupees belonging to farmers were deposited in these banks. He said that today, 15 of the 16 banks have returned to profitability.
Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana
Under the scheme, farmers previously had to pay interest at the rate of 11 per cent on loans. The state government has now announced a five per cent interest subsidy, bringing the effective interest rate down to just six per cent.
The Chief Minister also launched an online portal for the scheme. Farmers can apply for loans through the portal at https://mksyldb.in/.
Farmers will first have to register on the portal to apply for a loan. During registration, they will need to provide details such as their address, district, branch, tehsil, block, gram panchayat and village, along with the amount of loan required. They will also have to provide their mobile number for OTP verification.
Through the Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi portal, the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Gram Vikas Bank Limited provides loans for activities including irrigation, animal husbandry, farm mechanisation and rural livelihoods.