Flood stricken farmers want loan relief

By Uditha Jayasinghe

Farmers in the flood stricken Batticaloa District on Wednesday made an appeal to the Central Bank Governor to restructure the loan repayment schedule of affected farmers and give special loans for the Yala season.

During a speech made at People’s Bank in Batticaloa during a special tour made by Governor Ajith Nivard Cabaal to assess the prevalence of microfinance in the region, the agriculture director for the district made this appeal adding that it was necessary to recover from the devastation.

The Socio Economic and Planning Centre, Department of Agriculture in its recent crop forecast released in February stated the highest crop damage was reported from Batticaloa, which recorded 58,100 hectares or 97% from the sown extent of paddy. Another 70, 000 acres have been abandoned as a result of sand deposits after the floods.

A special loan scheme was introduced during the ceremony held at the Batticaloa branch of the People’s Bank where communities were collectively allowed to take loans. The first group of 80 people from Sathurukondai received their loans. Under the new scheme people of one community can get together and form groups between 30-80 and open a bank account of Rs.100 000. This will act as collateral for the loans that the group takes collectively. Each member of the group acts as a guarantor for the others. The People’s Bank in Batticaloa has already loaned over Rs.1.3 billion since 2009.