Government moves to facilitate easy farm credit through banks do not seem to be working as nearly one-third of farmers continue to remain in the clutches of loan sharks, a survey has revealed.

As many as 29 out of every 100 farmers depend on loan sharks as their main source of funds, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation said in its report released Tuesday.

"The incidence of borrowing from loan sharks was the highest in Andhra Pradesh (57/100) followed by Tamil Nadu (52/100)," the report stated.

Banks and cooperative societies were the next two important sources of borrowings for farmers.

In Kerala and Uttaranchal, the highest incidence (around 40 percent) of borrowing was from banks, while in Maharashtra, around 60 percent of farmers had sought loans from cooperative societies. In Kerala too, about 46 percent of farmers depended on cooperative societies for credit.

Some of the unique features that emerged from the survey are that farmer households in Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim depend mostly on traders for loans, while in Meghalaya, over 90 percent of farmers mainly depend on relatives and friends for help.

"Current expenditure in farm business," was found to be the main reason (in 37 percent cases) for farmers taking loans, the survey revealed.

The other two important purposes of taking loans were capital expenditure in farm business and household consumption expenditure, which was found to be highest in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Mizoram and Nagaland.