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ces.purdue.edu Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has called on the National Bank of Ukraine to facilitate the issuing of loans to farmers, using grain as collateral, Agriculture Minister Yuriy Melnyk has said, with reference to a letter from the premier sent to the NBU's heads.

"At our request, the prime minister has turned to the central bank. We've raised the question of issuing new loans for the harvesting campaign, using grain as collateral," he told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

As the minister said, the harvesting campaign needs about UAH 3 billion in loans. He believes that grain could be a good pledge and could be used by farmers to draw new loans.

The minister also said he believes that the NBU could gear the banks' lending activity in the agriculture sector through the tool of refinancing.

Melnyk said that the Agriculture Ministry suggests lowering interest rates on the loans that will be prolonged by the banks for farmers until October 1, 2009. He said this will help encourage the extension of the repayment period for loans taken by farming businesses last year.