Mangaluru : The state government would honour its budget commitment to waive agriculture loan of every single eligible farmer in Karnataka, minister Bandeppa Kashempur said. The waiver has helped 22 lakh farmers who obtained loans from co-operative sector.

Plans are afoot to extend agriculture loans to 15 lakh odd farmers to help their agriculture operations for next farming season, the minister added.

Kashempur said the government had released Rs 8,165 crore to waive agriculture loan up to Rs 50,000 and 300 farmers in Dakshina Kannada district had benefited to the tune of Rs 338 crore. Likewise, Rs 9448 crore loans of farmers who availed loan up to Rs 1 lakh had been waived, benefited 91858 farmers, he said.

The ‘Badavara Bandhu’ scheme launched by CM HD Kumaraswamy to provide collateral-guarantee free loans to street side vendors would benefited 53000 such vendors across Karnataka.

In Dakshina Kannada, 3000 street side vendors would be benefited, he said, adding vendors would received funds ranging from Rs 2000 to Rs 10000 to help carry out their business without fell prey to loan sharks who charge exorbitant rates of interest that wipes out their savings, he said.

The government had also taken steps to procure crops under minimum support price scheme through Karnataka State Cooperative Marketing Federation (KSCMF) that Kumar heads, Kashempur said. To plans from union ministry for chemicals and fertiliser to set up fertiliser plant in the cooperative sector in Karnataka, Kashempur said the state government would give all statutory clearances including facilitating land acquisition for the plant at Harihar.

The Kayaka scheme that the CM launched at the Belagavi session to spur entrepreneurship among self-help groups will be extended to entire Karnataka in a phased manner. Under this, SHGs will receive loans up to Rs 5 lakh at 0% interest and loans up to Rs 10 lakh at 4% interest. An applicant SHG must have at least 10 members, he said, adding the average borrowed of each group was around Rs 3-4 lakh and they would benefited from it.