Big hike in state’s annual credit plan

5:09 AM 12 comments Agri info Media

The state’s annual credit plan (ACP) prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabad) for the current fiscal would be Rs 37,000 crore.

Compared to the last fiscal’s ACP worth Rs 21,127 crore, the increase is tremendous around 75 per cent, which tantamount to saying that the state’s credit absorption capacity has substantially increased.
While the average achievement on the credit-giving front under ACP in the last few fiscals has been around 70 per cent, the sheer increase in the volume of ACP for the current fiscal by itself would help in pumping in a substantial chunk of money in the priority sector.

The priority sector consists of loaning activities by the Nabard, and itaccounts for credit worth Rs 22,159 crore during the current fiscal — Rs 11,968 crore for crop loan, Rs 3,899 crore for term credit in agriculture and allied activities, besides Rs 6,290 crore for non-farm sector, agro and food processing, as well as other priority sector activities, including micro-financing for the self-help groups (SHGs).

The remaining Rs 15,000 crore would be disbursed by commercial banks.

Nabard chairman U C Sarnagi, through video conferencing from the bank’s headquarters in Mumbai, said on Friday that Nabard has prioritized agriculture loan, micro-financing to promote income generation activities through SHGs, and infrastructure development through its rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) schemes for the state. “The focus is on increasing road connectivity in the state’s flood-prone zones covering health centres, schools and bridges,” Sarangi said.

The bank’s Patna regional chief general manager (CGM) M M Mishra said that Nabard estimated increased “potential for credit deployment under priority sector since cooperatives have become functional.” The elections to the Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) have already been completed.

According to him, Nabard has sanctioned Rs 877 crore for RIDF during the last fiscal and managed to utilize Rs 542 crore. He said that 1.36 lakh SHGs had credit linkages through the promotional assistance of Nabard, while 18,354 new SHGs were added in the last fiscal. Besides, clubs of small farmers, including of sharecroppers, and other groups of landless people were being formed to facilitate and provide credit linkages to them.

Thanks: The Times Of india