YSR Sunna Vaddi Scheme (Zero-Interest Crop Loans)

What is the YSR Sunna Vaddi Scheme?

YSR Sunna Vaddi Scheme is the Andhra Pradesh government's zero-interest crop loan programme, run by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. Sunna vaddi is Telugu for "zero interest", and readers will also find the programme written as Vaddi Leni Runalu or simply as the pavala vaddi / sunna vaddi crop loan scheme in older material.

The important thing to understand at the outset is what the scheme is not. YSR Sunna Vaddi is not a loan waiver and it is not a cash grant. The farmer takes an ordinary crop loan from a bank, a cooperative society or a District Cooperative Central Bank and repays it. If the repayment happens within one year of drawal, the state reimburses the interest that accrued on a loan of up to Rs 1 lakh, crediting it against the farmer's loan account. The net effect for a punctual borrower is that the money cost nothing.

The design has a purpose beyond the subsidy. By tying the benefit to prompt repayment rather than to distress, the scheme rewards farmers who keep their credit record clean, keeps them inside the formal credit system, and reduces the pull of private moneylenders at the start of the next season. Crop loans in Andhra Pradesh flow substantially through the cooperative structure. The Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Bank (APCOB) refinances short-term crop loans to the District Cooperative Central Banks, which lend on to primary agricultural credit societies at village level.

Who is eligible for YSR Sunna Vaddi?

You qualify if:

• You are a farmer in Andhra Pradesh who has taken a crop loan from a scheduled commercial bank, a Regional Rural Bank, a District Cooperative Central Bank or a primary agricultural credit society.
• The loan is a short-term crop loan for the season, not a term loan for machinery or a personal loan.
• You repay within one year of the date of drawal.
• The loan account is Aadhaar-seeded so the reimbursement can be credited.

Tenant farmers are eligible in principle, but only where the crop loan stands in the tenant's own name. In Andhra Pradesh that normally requires a Crop Cultivator Rights Card (CCRC) issued for the season under the state's tenancy law. Where the tenant farms without a CCRC, the loan is drawn by the landowner and the interest benefit follows the loan account, which is a long-standing source of unfairness in practice.

You are not eligible if:

• You did not repay within the one-year window. This is not discretionary and cannot be regularised afterwards.
• Your borrowing was a term loan, farm mechanisation loan, personal loan or business loan, rather than a seasonal crop loan.
• You borrowed from a private moneylender or an unregulated lender. Only loans from formal institutions are reported and reimbursed.
• The loan sits in a non-agricultural account or the lender has not classified it as a crop loan.
• The interest already claimed for the same account and season has been reimbursed once. The benefit is not paid twice on the same loan.

How much does the scheme give?

The benefit equals the interest accrued on a crop loan of up to Rs 1 lakh repaid within one year. Two consequences follow:

• The ceiling is on the loan, not on the payout. A farmer with a Rs 60,000 crop loan gets the interest on Rs 60,000 reimbursed; a farmer with a Rs 3 lakh crop loan gets interest reimbursed only on the first Rs 1 lakh.
• The payout size depends on the interest rate and the tenure. Because crop loans in India already carry a central interest subvention and a prompt repayment incentive, the residual interest the state reimburses is modest in rupee terms. The value to the farmer is the certainty that punctual repayment costs nothing.

The credit is made to the loan account, not to a savings account, and it appears as a reduction against the farmer's dues rather than as cash in hand.

How to apply for the YSR Sunna Vaddi benefit

1. Take the crop loan through a formal lender. Approach your primary agricultural credit society, District Cooperative Central Bank branch, RRB or commercial bank with your pattadar passbook or Record of Rights, Aadhaar and bank passbook. Tenant farmers should first obtain a Crop Cultivator Rights Card at the Rythu Bharosa Kendram so the loan can be issued in their name.
2. Ensure the loan is booked as a short-term crop loan and that your Aadhaar is seeded to the loan account. Ask for this to be confirmed on the passbook or sanction letter — misclassification is the single most common reason the benefit never arrives.
3. Complete e-crop booking for the season at the Rythu Bharosa Kendram, so the crop, the survey number and the cultivator are on the state's record.
4. Repay the loan in full within one year of the drawal date. Keep the repayment receipt. Do not wait for a renewal cycle to lapse.
5. Check the loan account for the interest credit after the season's reimbursement is released, and raise it with the lending branch if it does not appear.

There is no online form for the farmer to fill in. The reporting is done by the lender, which is why step 2 matters more than any paperwork the farmer files.

How do I check whether my interest was reimbursed?

1. Ask the lending branch for the loan account statement and look for the interest reimbursement entry against the account.
2. Confirm with the branch that your account was included in the report sent to the state for that season. A branch that never reported the account is the most frequent point of failure.
3. Take an unresolved case to the Rythu Bharosa Kendram and the Mandal Agriculture Officer, who can route it through the district agriculture office.
4. File a written grievance at any Gram Sachivalayam or on the state citizen helpline 1902 if the departmental route stalls.

Why do farmers miss out on Sunna Vaddi?

• Repayment a few days late. The one-year window is measured from drawal, not from the end of the season, and farmers often assume the season's end is the deadline.
• Loan classified as something other than a crop loan, most often a general agricultural or gold loan.
• Aadhaar not seeded to the loan account, so the credit cannot be matched.
• Tenant farming without a CCRC, so the loan and the benefit both sit with the landowner.
• Branch did not report the account in the season's statement.
• Duplicate or mismatched farmer records between the bank's data and the state's e-crop and land records.

Most of these are fixable before the loan is taken rather than after, which is why a farmer should settle the loan classification, the Aadhaar seeding and the CCRC position at the counter on the day of sanction.

Where do I get help?

• Lending branch, the first and most useful stop for anything about the loan account and the interest credit.
• Rythu Bharosa Kendram in your village, for e-crop booking, CCRC and agriculture department queries.
• Mandal Agriculture Officer and District Agriculture Officer for escalation.
• APCOB toll-free 1800-425-2345, for questions about the cooperative credit chain.
• Gram or Ward Sachivalayam, or the state citizen helpline 1902, for a written grievance.

No agent, middleman or intermediary can secure the Sunna Vaddi benefit for a farmer. Timely repayment is the only thing that produces it, and no fee paid to anyone changes that.