• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• The Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Seeking opening of more channels of credit, Mr Samar Ghosh, Principal Secretary, Finance, Government of West Bengal, called for crop diversification, into items other than rice such as wheat, oilseeds and pulses, in which Bengal is deficient.

Kolkata , Jan. 13

THE National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has been urged to come out with suggestions to exploit fully the rural credit potential of all the 18 districts of West Bengal.

The potential-linked credit plan (PLP) projection for West Bengal for 2006-07 by Nabard is estimated at Rs 8,273 crore. It is pointed out that the ground level credit (GLC) flow for the State during 2004-05 was Rs 4,603 crore, against a PLP projection of Rs 5,440 crore, thus leaving a gap of Rs 837 crore - clearly an opportunity not availed of by bankers.

Releasing Nabard's State Focus Paper 2006-07 for West Bengal here on Thursday at the annual State credit seminar organised by Nabard, Mr Samar Ghosh, Principal Secretary, Finance, Government of West Bengal, said deployment of adequate credit was vital for the developmental initiatives of the State Government in areas such as minor irrigation and rural marketing.

He said the State Government has announced various initiatives to ameliorate the situation faced by the farming community in general. Admitting to deficiencies in the rural electrification programme, which has been somewhat sluggish, Mr Ghosh disclosed that a massive programme has been launched to electrify the maximum number of un-electrified villages by March 2007. The State Electricity Board is planning to create special feeder lines for agriculture, he added.

Seeking opening of more channels of credit, Mr Ghosh called for crop diversification into items other than rice such as wheat, oilseeds and pulses in which Bengal is deficient.

He also cited floriculture and food processing as new areas which require farm credit, now that five food parks have been set up in the State.

Intervention through micro-finance was equally important, he felt, to alleviate rural poverty.

Stressing on the need for greater minor irrigation facilities for the State's farmers, considering that the last monsoon has not been evenly spread, he said a Ground Water Regulation Act was already in place, and efforts were now on to prepare a road map at the earliest, for helping banks and financial institutions to work on the credit needs for minor irrigation facilities.

The focus paper has been prepared by aggregating the credit potential of all the 18 districts of the State, and it also details the gaps in infrastructure and the identified constraints for realising the full credit potential.

More Stories on : Agricultural Institutions | Economy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Triveni Engg, SBI tie up to provide credit to farmers

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line