National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development – NABARD has called farm loan waivers a "moral hazard"; stating that such facilities should only be given to needy farmers. <br/><br/>Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, NABARD Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala said it is not possible to have omnibus waivers as every time a debt waiver is announced, it is the taxpayers' money which is used to bail out farmers. <br/><br/>These comments come a week after UP government announced a Rs 36,000-crore farm loan waiver package; stoking similar demands in Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. However, a few days back; Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel had also expressed strong displeasure over such measures. <br/><br/>Meanwhile, Mr. Bhanwala informed that NABARD is set to surpass the 9 trillion rupee agri loan target for fiscal 2017 and will repeat the performance in fiscal 2018 by exceeding the 10 trillion rupee mark. <br/><br/>He said NABARD is laying extra focus on long-term irrigation fund and expects to deploy upto 25,000 crore rupees for this purposes. Mr. Bhanwala said share of long-term loans has risen to 24 percent of its total loanbook from 19 percent two years ago; while its non- performing assets ratio has come down to 0.07 per cent. <br/><br/>Talking about demonetisation, Mr. Bhanwala said there was a jump in repayments in the initial days but credit demand witnessed an impact later. He informed that NABARD has also started operating a financial inclusion fund and sanctioned installation of 2.07 lakh point of sale machines.