The Hindu Business Line : Nabard fund to help farming community adopt tech

Nagapattinam, Aug. 18 The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has set up ‘Farmers Technology Transfer Fund’ with a corpus of Rs 25 crore from its operating profit of 2007-08 to support the entire farming community.

The main objectives of the fund, which became operational from April this year, would be supporting all farmers, including members of farmers clubs, to facilitate adoption of appropriate technologies through training-cum-exposure visits, demonstrative projects or such other activities, Mr K. Venugopal, Assistant General Manager, Nabard, Nagapattinam, said.

The other objectives include dissemination of appropriate technologies and commercial intelligence through direct contacts, literature, visuals, etc and undertaking activities such as financial literacy, credit counselling and other related activities.

Enabling self-help

He pointed out that organisation of farmers into informal associations, joint liability groups, producer groups, producer companies or other ways for self-help, collective approach for commercial transactions, networking with the value chain and financial inclusion would also be given importance.

Mr Venugopal said that Nabard would provide support to the Farmers Training and Rural Development Centres to set up major commercial banks or any other agencies by meeting 50 per cent of the annual recurring expenses or Rs 15 lakh, whichever is lower, for the purposes of training and transferring technology to rural artisans, farmers and others.

Referring to the project duration, he said that projects and programmes of up to three years would be considered for support under the fund and the quantum of assistance would be limited to a maximum of 95 per cent of the project outlay. The fund will be utilised to extend support in the form of grant, soft loan, equity-like support or a blend, as decided by Nabard on the merits of each case.

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