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Our Bureau

Pune April 2 The National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard) has projected a credit flow of Rs 20,972 crore for Maharashtra for the current fiscal. This is against Rs 16,395 crore for the year ended March 2007.

This includes the overall credit potential of non-farm and service sectors, Mr N. Srinivasan, Chief General Manager, Nabard told presspersons here today.

Giving the outlook for the current fiscal, ending March 2008, he said the Potential Linked Plans (PLPs) have also identified several factors hindering credit flow and measures have been suggested to overcome these.

He noted that measures taken for revival of co-operative credit structure are expected to enhance the credit flow by about Rs 1,000 crore during the current fiscal.

Along with these initiatives, he said real sector interventions such as watershed development, micro-irrigation, development of dry land horticulture, agro-processing, agricultural extension through agro clinics, integrated farm development in Vidharba, improving the reach of micro-finance and contract farming would be the focus areas for the current year.

Support for SHG

He said support to self-help group for marketing their products through development of micro enterprises would also be a focus area.

He pointed out that the SHG movement had gained momentum in the State as 67,000 new groups had already been linked during 2006-07 and the banks are estimating to credit link more than 90,000 SHGs (60,000 groups in 2005-06) taking the total number of SHGs linked in the State to two lakhs.

Promotional assistance of Rs 55.30 lakh was sanctioned to partner agencies during 2006-07 for conducting 547 training programmes covering 16,200 persons to strengthen the micro-credit programme in the State, he said.

Further, grant assistance of Rs 320.87 lakh has been sanctioned to 145 NGOs (171 projects) to promote 12,300 SHGs.

Mr Srinivasan said under the co-financing scheme, Nabard along with commercial banks had participated in implementation of four schemes relating to processing of dairy products, ethanol production from sugar beet.

These projects involve a financial outlay of Rs 147.41crore in which Nabard share is Rs 50.46 crore.

During 2006-07, it had disbursed Rs 5.36 crore. He said the dairy project had taken up the marketing and processing of milk products and would be completing its first year.

The second project is in Indrapur near Pune and would be manufacturing alcohol and other derivatives including ethanol from sugar beet.

Commercial production is expected to begin next month and is the first of such a project in the State using sugar beet as the raw material for commercial production. This is expected to include 12,000 sugar beet cultivators to the processing units, he said.

Mr Srinivasan said the artisans at Ghongadi in Solapur, which has sheep rearing and carpet making as its mainstay would be imparted technical and financial support for improvement of their produce and raw material. Along with the Maharashtra Sheep and Goat Development Corporation, the programme is scheduled to be launched this month and is estimated to include about 300 families into this project.

Asked about the sugar industry, he said 127 mills had opted for the package, out of which 91 mills had been declared eligible. He said about 74 mills had taken up the package and the memorandum of understanding has been signed with banks. The disbursement would be Rs 1,800 crore. He added that these mills have been given a timeframe, a road map and had to report back on the steps taken.

More Stories on : Agricultural Institutions | Rural Development | Maharashtra

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