Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society Limited bank saves farmers’ lives
KARIMNAGAR: While most private banks are drawing flak for harassing farmers while granting crop loans, the 60-year-old Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society Limited (MCRBMS) is setting an example in providing hassle-free loans and welfare schemes to the agrarian community.
Significantly, not a single suicide has been reported from the 14 villages that rely on this bank. The bank also won a national award for excelling in the field of cooperative society last year.
“The MCRBMS was established with barely 373 farmers, who had contributed Rs 2,300 as initial investment, at Mulkanoor village near Bheemadevera-palli mandal headquarters in 1956. The region’s agrarian community was undergoing severe crisis due to scanty rainfall. The farmers were unable to get input supply at reasonable rates. Private money lenders were charging exorbitant rates of interest for loans to farmers,” recalled Mr A. Praveen Reddy, the president of the bank.
He added that the society currently had 7,300 members from 14 villages of both Bheemadeverapalli and Elkathurthy mandals. With a turnover of '120 crore per annum, the bank records a 99 per cent recovery rate of crop loans.
This bank also offers a wide range of services to the farming community. These include loans for taking up cultivation of various crops at seven per cent rate interest. It also encourages farmers to venture into agriculture-allied activities, Mr Reddy said.
Besides, the society-cum-bank creates marketing opportunities for farmers at their doorstep in order to eliminate middlemen. It provides insurance cover to its members and to their cattle.
It has also erected 52 warehouses in the villages for storing the produce of farmers. It runs a petrol bunk, a gas agency, a shopping complex, a cotton ginning mill and two rice mills for its members.
In addition, it has also established an intermediate and degree college, exclusively for the children of farmers. Also, it provides financial assistance to farmers for their children’s education.
Scholarships are also given to the children of farmers who pursue professional courses such as bachelor of pharmacy, engineering, veterinary, agriculture and medicine.
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