Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund (Loan to State Cooperative Bank)

What is the Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund in Chhattisgarh?

Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund is a scheme of the Cooperation Department (Sahakarita Vibhag), Government of Chhattisgarh, listed on the department's own scheme page at coop.cg.gov.in as "Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund (Loan to State Cooperative Bank)". According to that page, the objective is to convert short-term agricultural loans into medium-term loans during natural calamities, and the State Government provides a 2.50 per cent share as a loan to State Cooperative Banks to strengthen the fund.

The scheme is therefore not a cash benefit. Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund is a buffer maintained inside the cooperative credit structure. When a drought, flood, hailstorm or pest attack destroys a standing crop, the farmers who borrowed for that crop cannot repay within the season. Without a stabilization fund, the Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society and the District Central Cooperative Bank would have to treat those loans as overdue, which blocks the same farmers from taking a fresh crop loan the following season. The fund lets the cooperative banks reschedule the borrowing instead.

How the three tiers fit together

• Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society (PACS). The village-level society that actually lends to the farmer member. Chhattisgarh has 2,058 PACS and LAMPS, according to the Cooperation Department.
• District Central Cooperative Bank (DCCB): finances the PACS in its district and carries the loan on its books.
• Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank (Apex Bank), Raipur — the state-level apex institution that holds the stabilization fund and refinances the DCCBs.

The State Government's 2.50 per cent share flows in at the top of that chain, to the State Cooperative Bank, and the relief works its way down to the farmer.

Why does Chhattisgarh need a credit stabilization fund?

Chhattisgarh's short-term crop credit runs almost entirely through cooperatives. The Cooperation Department states that farmers in the state are given interest-free short-term agricultural loans of up to Rs 5,00,000 through cooperative societies and banks, with separate interest-free limits of up to Rs 3,00,000 for fisheries and horticulture and up to Rs 2,00,000 for lac producers, and cattle-rearing loans at 1 per cent up to Rs 2,00,000 and 3 per cent from Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 3,00,000.

Because that credit is issued at zero or near-zero interest and is repaid from the paddy sold at the state procurement centres, a failed monsoon hits the cooperative banks and the farmer at the same moment. The stabilization fund is the mechanism that absorbs that shock at the institutional level so the lending cycle restarts the next season.

Who benefits from the Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund?

The scheme reaches these groups:

• Farmer members of PACS and LAMPS in Chhattisgarh who hold a short-term agricultural loan that has become unrepayable because of a natural calamity in a notified area.
• District Central Cooperative Banks whose short-term advances to PACS need to be rescheduled.
• The Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank, which receives the State Government's 2.50 per cent share as a loan into the fund.

These people are not eligible and cannot apply:

• Individual citizens seeking a cash grant. Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund pays no money to a person. There is no application form, no online portal registration and no direct benefit transfer under this scheme.
• Farmers who borrowed from a commercial or private bank rather than from a Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society. The fund sits inside the cooperative structure only.
• Farmers in a season or area where no crop loss has been declared by the revenue department. Conversion is triggered by a notified calamity, not by an individual's request.
• Non-members of the society. Membership of the PACS is the basic precondition for holding the loan in the first place.

What documents are involved?

No fresh document set is normally demanded from the farmer, because the society already holds the loan file. The paperwork that decides conversion is the revenue department's village-level crop-loss assessment.

How to apply for relief under the Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund

There is no citizen application. The steps below describe the real institutional route, which is what a farmer should follow up on.

1. Confirm the loan is with a cooperative society. Check your Kisan Kitab or society passbook to see whether the short-term crop loan was issued by your Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society. Only cooperative-sector loans fall inside this fund.
2. Wait for the revenue department's crop-loss assessment. After a calamity, the Patwari and Tehsildar record crop loss for the affected village. This assessment, not a personal request, is what allows conversion.
3. Visit your PACS and ask for the loan to be placed in the conversion list. Carry your society passbook and land record. The society forwards the affected members' cases to the District Central Cooperative Bank.
4. Let the DCCB and the State Cooperative Bank complete the conversion. The DCCB reschedules the short-term advance into a medium-term loan, drawing on the stabilization fund maintained at the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank.
5. Collect the revised repayment schedule from the society and check that the new due dates are entered in your passbook before the next cropping season begins.

How to check the status of a conversion

1. Ask the Secretary of your Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society to show the conversion entry against your account in the society's ledger.
2. If the society has gone live on the computerised PACS software rolled out under the state's PACS digitisation project, ask for a printed account statement showing the converted balance and the revised due date.
3. Escalate to the block-level Cooperative Inspector and then to the District Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies if the society cannot show the entry.

Why conversion requests fail, and what to do

• The loan was not from a cooperative society. Loans from commercial banks are handled under Reserve Bank of India relief norms through that bank, not through this fund.
• The village was not covered by the crop-loss declaration. Take this up with the Tehsildar, since the fund follows the revenue record.
• The member's account was already in default from an earlier season. Old overdues are treated separately from calamity-year conversion.
• The society did not forward the case in time. Ask for the forwarding letter reference and follow it at the DCCB.

Where to raise a grievance

• Office of the Commissioner, Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Chhattisgarh, Raipur to 0771-2511920. The Additional Commissioner's office is reachable on 0771-2511923.
• District Deputy Registrar / Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies in your district, for society-level disputes.
• Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank (Apex Bank), Raipur; general helpline 0771-2539690.
• The Cooperation Department also functions as a quasi-judicial forum under the Chhattisgarh Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, and hears disputes between members and societies at trial and appellate level.

What this scheme is not

Agricultural Credit Stabilization Fund is often confused with two other Chhattisgarh measures. It is not the Short-Term Agricultural Loan Waiver Scheme, which was a one-time waiver of PACS loans outstanding as on 30 November 2018. It is also not the interest subsidy scheme, under which the State Government makes short-term crop loans of up to Rs 5,00,000 interest-free. This fund only reschedules existing borrowing after a calamity.