The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has estimated a credit potential of ₹1,57,498 crore for West Bengal under priority sector during 2019-20. This is almost 21 per cent higher than the ₹1,29,961- crore credit potential for the current fiscal.

While the potential for farm credit is estimated to be close to ₹61,337 crore, the same for the MSME sector is pegged at around ₹59,662 crore, according to the State Focus Paper prepared by Nabard. The paper, which contains the aggregation of district-wise and sector-wise credit potentials, was released at a credit seminar in the city on Wednesday.

Raising the income of farmers and creating enterprise and jobs at the local level are necessary to ensure sustainable and inclusive development of the State. In order to achieve this, there should be a greater thrust on sustainable agricultural practices. There is also a need to focus on the MSME sector with specific emphasis on village and cottage industries and handloom sector, the focus paper said.

Agri-cooperatives

Highlighting the role of cooperatives in agriculture and rural development, Arup Roy, in-charge of Cooperation department, said the State is laying ‘special thrust’ on all-round development of agriculture as well as the cooperative sector. There is a need to strengthen marketing infrastructure for better price realisation, said HK Dwivedi, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance. The West Bengal government has been laying emphasis on development of warehousing and marketing infrastructure.

“The total warehousing capacity for storing foodgrain was close to 66,000 tonne in 2011. Today it is close to 13 lakh tonne. Much of these capacities have been created through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) window. Farmers’ income has also increased substantially in the last five-to-six years,” he said.

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