The Odisha state cooperative marketing federation (Markfed) and Aska sugar mill are in a bad way. The state govt has decided to provide them with loans in order to enable them to overcome their present crisis.
The Markfed and the Aska sugar mill get loans of Rs. 30 crore and Rs.20 crore from the cooperative bank respectively. The Odisha govt. will be the guarantor for these loans.
The Markfed will use this loan for buying groundnut and sunflower seeds from farmers from about half a dozen districts of the state. Odisha ranks the sixth largest producer in groundnut and the fifth largest in sunflower in the country.