Cultivation loans:

Thirty percent provided to Jaffna peninsula

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

The Central Bank on Thursday welcomed 33 farmer leaders it created in the Jaffna peninsula who were part of a programme to the North, to which province it has disbursed Rs 1.6 billion in cultivation loans, accounting for 30 percent of Rs 5.4 billion provided.

The loan schemes Prabodhini, which is a Poverty Alleviation Micro Finance Project and given to 14,224 farmers and Sarusara have been implemented by the Central Bank through public, private and development banks - Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, Hatton National Bank, Sanasa Development Bank and Regional Development Bank.

These loans have been disbursed to 3,100 farmers in the Jaffna peninsula, 700 in the Northern Province, 6,000 in the Eastern Province and 4,300 farmers in Puttalam, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Moneragala and Ratnapura districts.

The diverse array of the produce, include, chillies and onions, manioc, all up-country and low-country vegetables, barring leeks, and fruit, such as, bananas and grapes and these have been cultivated under the programme. The Central Bank, prior to the disbursement of the loans had engaged in education of the farmers in banking literacy where they were taught about how to open accounts and implement transactions.