Bangalore / New Delhi, July 20 (IANS): Former Karnataka chief minister and Lok Sabha member H.D. Kumaraswamy Monday urged the central government to "once for all waive the entire loan component of small and marginal farmers" to start lending process for them on a clean slate.

This would help the government avoid confusion and complication in implementing the Rs.80,000 crore (Rs.800 billion) loan waiver announced last year, he said participating in the Lok Sabha debate on the grants for central agriculture ministry.

"I urge the government to once for all waive the entire loan component of all small and marginal farmers including cultivators of plantation crops, fishermen, weavers and rural artisans and start the lending process afresh on a clean slate," Kumaraswamy, son of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, said.

The Lok Sabha member from the Bangalore Rural constituency sought to know what steps the government was taking to ensure that the banks lend the mandatory 18 percent bank credit to agriculture "instead of seeking an escape route through NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) bonds."

He added that nearly half of Indian farm households (over 48 percent) were indebted and that 42.3 percent of their debt was from non-institutional sources.

On the farmers' debt scene in Karnataka, Kumaraswamy said of the 75.8 lakh farmers in the state, 61.6 percent of farmer households were indebted as against the national average of 48.6 percent.

He said the National Sample Survey Organisation had found in 2005 that 73.5 percent of farmer households in Karnataka, who owned two hectares of land or less, were in debt.

"In a country where 79 percent of the farmers own less than 1.5 hectares of land, such instances raise several questions on the debt waiver scheme," Kumaraswamy added.