mumbai after extending the duration of its special home and car loans schemes to september 30 state bank of india on saturday also extended the period of its concessional financing against warehouse receipts to farmers till endseptember this loan will now be available at a fixed rate of 8 per cent for a period of 12months in respect of loans sanctioned and disbursed till endseptember the bank said in a press release issued here in february state bank had commenced offering loans at a concessional rate of 8 per cent per annum to farmers against cold storage and warehouse receipts in a bid to save farmers from falling prey to distress sale of their produce the scheme had proved tremendously popular and hence the bank has decided to extend the period till september 30 the release said this initiative has proved to be tremendously popular this liberal and timely move by sbi will be a boon to farmers besides timing the market for storage requirements of the expected bumber wheat crop the release said the public sector lender the largest bank in the country is the biggest lender to agriculture with a portfolio of over rs 60000crore and a customer base of over 70lakh customersabout a week ago the bank extended its special home and car loans scheme at 8 per cent and 10 per cent interest respectively for the first year also up to september 30 the bank had introduced the special schemes in february for a period uptil april 30 the extension was in response to the tremendous response the schemes received sbis chief general manager personal banking p nandakumaran had then said beginning february when the scheme was first introduced sbi has sanctioned rs 2500crore of home loans and financed 20000 cars he said the bank was targeting rs 1500crore of new sanctions every month in home and car loans combined through the schemes till endseptember he said