The move is aimed at easing liquidity crisis facing farmers who were left with very little cash to buy seeds and fertilizers for winter crops due to restrictions placed on bank withdrawals post demonetisation.
This has threatened crop production in a year that came after two successive years of drought.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had yesterday relaxed rules on loans to farmers, allowing NABARD to disburse up to Rs 23,000 crore to district cooperative banks for crop loans.
Das said that out of the total agriculture credit, institutional credit meets more than 40 per cent of the requirement of small and marginal farmers.
