NEW DELHI, Apr 21 : Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday called for overhauling the rural credit system, saying that despite the Kisan Credit Card scheme, obtaining a bank loan remains an ordeal for farmers who must navigate layers of paperwork, patwaris, and tehsil offices for getting a loan sanctioned.
Speaking at a panel on agriculture during Civil Services Day, Chouhan said the current system fails the very people it is meant to serve.
“The farmer is not a beggar — he comes to the system with his rights, needs, and respect,” he said, cautioning that officials in positions of power often lose sight of this.
Sharing a familiar picture of rural banking distress, the minister said farmers walk 8 to 10 kilometres to a branch, only to return home with work undone, defeated by long queues and understaffed counters.
With direct benefit transfers — from MNREGA wages to PM Kisan instalments — flooding rural accounts, the pressure on limited bank staff has become untenable, he said, calling for a serious reassessment of rural banking manpower.
Chouhan also flagged the uneven promise of technology. During wheat procurement, satellite-based verification created fresh hurdles for farmers rather than easing them — a reminder, he said, that digitalisation must account for ground realities, an official statement said.
On integrated farming, the minister argued that a small or marginal farmer with one to two-and-a-half acres simply cannot survive on grain alone. Diversifying into horticulture, animal husbandry, fish farming, or beekeeping requires capital — capital that most lack and that subsidies alone cannot provide.
He also backed warehouse receipt loans as a tool to protect farmers from distress selling, but said the scheme needs to be made genuinely accessible. Citing the case of a farmer whose Rs 18 lakh loan ballooned to Rs 40 lakh, he urged banks to explore one-time settlements as a practical fix.
Addressing civil servants, Chouhan called for introspection and out-of-the-box thinking — and asked them to look beyond NPA statistics toward the human cost behind the numbers. )PTI)
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