Comments
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Wednesday said financial assistance extended to Punjab touched a new high of Rs 5,690.16 crore in 2010-11, 24 per cent more than the support provided in 2009-10.
“There has been an increase of 24.37 per cent in financial assistance (refinance and loan) to Punjab by NABARD for bringing about sustainable development of agriculture, allied activities and strengthening of rural infrastructure,” NABARD Chief General Manager, Mr S.C. Kaushik, told reporters here on Wednesday.
NABARD extended credit for crop loans to the tune of Rs 4,275 crore to Punjab State Cooperative Bank and three regional rural banks last fiscal, a jump of 25 per cent over the credit disbursed in the previous year.
This credit is extended at a concessional rate of interest of four per cent a year for disbursement of loans to farmers at seven per cent interest with a relief of two per cent for regular payers.
More disbursement
Reversing the declining trend in refinance off take for capital formation in the farm sector, an amount of Rs 976.25 crore was given by NABARD as refinance to Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank, cooperative banks and commercial banks for dairy development, minor irrigation, farm mechanisation, horticulture, land development, etc.
The amount so refinanced was 37 per cent more than the previous fiscal. However, Mr Kaushik expressed concern over the declining recovery rate of the primary agriculture development bank in the state. “The recovery rate of primary banks in Punjab stands at 59 per cent, which is quite low compared with recovery in other states,” he noted.
Under the RIDF scheme, NABARD sanctioned a loan of Rs 602.02 crore to the Punjab government last fiscal for 170 projects, taking the cumulative sanction to Rs 4,614.36 crore.
Major projects supported under the RIDF are rural roads, bridges, irrigation, rural sanitation and social sector projects.
Mr Kaushik also said the thrust area for NABARD would now be promoting the establishment of rural godowns for foodgrains storage in view of insufficient space in the state. “There is a shortage of space for storing food grain in Punjab — 68 lakh tonnes,” he said.
Observing that tractors are not working to the optimum level of usage in the state, Mr Kaushik said that NABARD had asked banks to finance innovative farm implements like happy seeders, laser levelers, ratavators, etc.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.