Supporting small farmers

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A TOTAL of 130,000 small farmers with debts to the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC) were pleased this week to hear that President Hosni Mubarak has let them off the hook by forgiving half their debt to the bank. To enjoy this privilege, farmers' loans must not exceed LE25,000, and they must have been used in activities related to agriculture and not for any other purpose. Moreover, farmers who took out the loans must not own more than five feddans. According to Ali Shaker, head of PBDAC, these debts go back a long way to the late 1990s. Tackling them was part of the government's efforts to deal with defaulters. This act of generosity is expected to cost the government budget around LE500 million.