The Hindu Business Line : Nabard plea to allow RDB to raise deposits for farm credit

THE Regional Office of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has requested the State Government that the Kerala State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (KSCARDB) be permitted to mobilise deposits to make cheaper farm credit available.

The Chief General Manager, Kerala, Mr B.S. Shekhawat, who made this request at a specially convened seminar for presidents of district cooperative banks here, also demanded that the guarantee fee being charged from cooperative banks be waived.

Earlier, the Minister for Cooperation, Mr M. V. Raghavan, inaugurated the seminar, which was presided over by Mr K. R. Aravindakshan, President, Kerala State Cooperative Bank (KSCB). According to the Minister, the policies of the Centre and Nabard should be suitably changed for the benefit of farmers and cooperatives in the State.

Traditional sectors such as coir and handloom should be provided with more financial assistance at cheaper rates.

KSCARDB is among the 19 State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks set up for providing log-term rural credit.

The rural credit institutional set-up comprises of commercial banks, co-operatives and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). The three-tier cooperative institutional set up for short term credit consist of 29 State co-operative banks, 367 district co-operative banks and a vast network of 92,000 primary agricultural credit societies.

According to Mr Shekhawat, there is a need for increasing the flow of credit to the agricultural sector, especially given the Centre's declared policy for doubling farm credit in three years. Cooperatives and Nabard should join hands for strengthening the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and, by extension, the cause of farmers themselves.

Cooperatives were facing stiff challenges from commercial banks and RRBs. Being farmers' own organisations, cooperatives should seek to increase their business and lending towards the agricultural sector and the State should provide adequate support to the endeavour.

In his presidential address, Mr Aravindakshan said that he had placed a request with the Union Finance Minister, whom he had met with recently, to order that Nabard's assistance towards crop loans be increased to 50 per cent from the present level of 30 per cent.

The seminar discussed the implementation of credit-related relief measures announced by the State Government and Nabard, recent changes in short-term and long-term refinance assistance, Kisan Credit Cards, Swarozgar Credit Cards, Self-Help Groups and the non-farm sector.

Among those present were Mr J. Sudhakaran, Secretary, Cooperation, Mr Anil Xavier, Managing Director, KSCB, and Mr K. Kesavan, Registrar, Cooperative Societies.

More Stories on : Farm credit | Regional Rural Banks | Kerala

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