Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank: Loan for Animal Husbandry (Tamil Nadu)

What is the PCARD Bank animal husbandry loan?

This is a long-term term loan given by a Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (PCARDB) in Tamil Nadu to finance animal husbandry. The purchase and rearing of milch animals, goats, sheep and poultry. The lender sits under the Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection Department and is supervised by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

The Cooperation Department's description of the long-term cooperative arm is direct: "There are 180 Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks at taluk/block levels. The Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks provide long term credit for purposes like minor irrigation, land development, purchase of agricultural machineries, horticulture, animal husbandry and other allied activities. The period of repayment of such loans ranges from 5 to 15 years."

Animal husbandry credit is investment credit, not working capital. A dairy animal takes a lactation cycle to begin repaying its own cost; a goat unit takes a year or more to produce a saleable increment. That is why the long-term structure, with its 5 to 15 year repayment window, fits livestock better than a short-term crop loan would.

Reported unit loans for this line include Rs 20,000 for the purchase of two buffaloes and Rs 24,500 for a 21-goat unit, with the interest rate reported in the range of 14.5 to 16.5 per cent and noted as subject to revision. Unit costs and rates differ between the 180 banks and are revised periodically, so treat these as indicative and ask the branch for its current schedule.

Farmers should also know the history. The department has recorded periods in which PCARD Bank lending was "practically nil for the last four years" because NABARD refinance was unavailable, followed by a revival in which the banks resumed non-farm sector lending including jewel loans, with priority stated for horticulture, organic farming, hi-tech farming, precision farming, micro irrigation, project-based activities and farm mechanisation under agricultural investment credit. Availability at any one bank in any one year therefore turns on that bank's resource position.

Who is eligible for the animal husbandry loan?

You can apply if:

• You are a member of the Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank covering your taluk or block, or are willing to take membership.
• You are a farmer or rural household resident in the area that bank serves.
• You are taking up dairy, goat, sheep or poultry rearing, either as a new activity or to expand an existing one.
• You can offer immovable property as security, since the long-term cooperative structure lends against mortgage.
• You can produce a costed unit proposal; how many animals, of what type, at what price, with what shed, feed and veterinary costs, and what income you expect.
• You have no existing overdue to a cooperative institution.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You have no mortgageable property. This is the binding constraint. A landless household should look instead at Self Help Group lending, the District Central Cooperative Bank micro credit line, or the Animal Husbandry Department's own subsidy-linked schemes and the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department's animal husbandry support, which are structured differently.
• You are an existing defaulter to a cooperative bank.
• Your property title is unclear or the encumbrance certificate shows a subsisting charge.
• You are looking for a subsidy rather than credit. This is a loan repayable with interest. Subsidy-linked livestock support in Tamil Nadu comes through the Animal Husbandry Department and the welfare departments, and is sometimes combined with a bank loan rather than replacing it.
• You need short-term working capital for feed alone. Use the short-term cooperative structure through a Primary Agricultural Cooperative Bank.
• Your local PCARD Bank has suspended lending that year for want of resources. This is a timing bar, not a permanent one.
• You are outside Tamil Nadu.

What the loan looks like

Because the loan is unit-based, the bank fixes the amount by reference to the number and type of animals rather than to a single ceiling. A household seeking a larger dairy unit should ask what unit costs the bank currently applies and how many animals its scale of finance permits.

What documents are required?

Animal insurance deserves particular attention. Livestock loans fail more often from the death of an animal than from a fall in milk price, and most banks will require the financed animals to be insured and ear-tagged before disbursing. Treat the premium as part of the project cost from the outset rather than as an afterthought.

How to apply for the animal husbandry loan

1. Locate the Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank covering your taluk or block. The Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies in your district will identify it.
2. Ask the branch whether animal husbandry lending is currently open, what unit costs it applies, and what the current interest rate is. Do this before assembling papers.
3. Take membership of the bank if you are not already a member, by buying the prescribed share.
4. Prepare the unit proposal, the number and type of animals, the purchase price, the shed, the feed and veterinary cost, the insurance premium, and a realistic income projection over the repayment period.
5. Assemble the security papers, the property document, patta and chitta and adangal where the security is land, and a fresh encumbrance certificate.
6. Submit the loan application at the bank with all documents, and obtain an acknowledgement.
7. Cooperate with the bank's inspection, in which an officer visits the premises, verifies the property and assesses the proposed unit and the shed.
8. Complete the mortgage and insurance formalities after sanction, and collect the sanction letter setting out the amount, rate, repayment schedule and charges before the animals are bought.
9. Buy the animals in the manner the bank directs, often at a notified market and in the presence of a bank official and a veterinary officer, and have them ear-tagged and insured.

How to check the status of your application

1. Ask the Secretary or Special Officer of the PCARD Bank for the position of the application and when it will go to the board.
2. Ask whether the bank is waiting on resources or refinance, which is a common answer at this arm of the structure.
3. Escalate in writing to the Deputy or Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies in the district.
4. Escalate further to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative State Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, the apex of the long-term structure.
5. Use the Chief Minister's Special Cell at cmhelpline.tn.gov.in for unresolved delays.

Common reasons an application fails, and how to fix them

• No mortgageable property. Not curable within this scheme. Look at Self Help Group lending, the cooperative micro credit line, or the subsidy-linked livestock schemes of the Animal Husbandry Department.
• Encumbrance certificate shows a subsisting charge. Clear the earlier mortgage or offer alternative security.
• Joint or ancestral title. All co-owners must join the mortgage; settle this before applying.
• No shed or no plan for one. Banks appraise the whole unit, not just the animals. Include the shed in the proposal.
• Unrealistic income projection. Base the milk yield or stock increment on local reality; an inflated projection invites rejection or a reduced sanction.
• Existing cooperative overdue. Settle it first.
• Animals bought before sanction. Buy only after sanction, and in the manner the bank directs, or the disbursement cannot be linked to the purchase.
• Bank has no lendable resources. Ask to be recorded for the next allocation and check parallel routes meanwhile.

Related routes worth checking

• Animal Husbandry Department schemes in Tamil Nadu, which provide subsidy-linked livestock units, veterinary cover and artificial insemination services, and which sometimes pair with a bank loan.
• Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department animal husbandry support for SC and ST families, which carries a subsidy element.
• Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks for short-term credit and jewel loans where the requirement is small and immediate.
• Self Help Group lending through cooperative institutions, which needs no property security.

Help and grievance redressal

• Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank in your taluk or block — application, appraisal and sanction.
• Deputy or Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, district, supervision and escalation.
• Registrar of Cooperative Societies: rcs.tn.gov.in
• Chief Minister's Special Cell: cmhelpline.tn.gov.in

Cooperative banks charge only their notified processing, inspection, valuation and documentation charges, which appear on the sanction letter. No commission is payable to any individual for arranging a loan, and any such demand should be reported to the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

A note on the reliability of these figures

The institutional facts here to 180 PCARD Banks at taluk and block level, animal husbandry as a named purpose of long-term cooperative credit, the 5 to 15 year repayment range and the history of suspended and revived lending, come from the Cooperation Department's own documentation. The unit loan figures of Rs 20,000 for two buffaloes and Rs 24,500 for 21 goats and the 14.5 to 16.5 per cent interest band come from secondary scheme summaries and are themselves marked as subject to revision. Unit costs for livestock in particular move with market prices and are reset periodically. Ask your own PCARD Bank for its current scale of finance and interest rate in writing before committing to a purchase.