Thanjavur: Collector A Annadurai said that agriculture loans to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore have been extended to farmers in the district through cooperative and nationalised banks in the current year.

Inaugurating the seminar on agriculture organised by the Syndicate Bank here today, Annadurai said that a target of Rs 5,400 crore has now been set to distribute as agriculture loan to the farmers in the district for 2017.

The Collector said that he had instructed revenue officials to issue the required land records, such as chitta and patta, to farmers to enable them to avail agriculture loans and he appealed to bankers to generously extend agriculture loans to farmers who avail loan only to take to farming in a bid to remove famine in the country. He also appealed to farmers to repay the loans properly in order to avail further loans whenever required.

On behalf of the Syndicate Bank, Annadurai distributed loans to 157 farmers. P Mantrachalam, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency, L Narasimha Rao, Field General Manager, Syndicate Bank and R Krishnakumar, Joint Director of Agriculture, among others, participated.