The Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Bank) has put the credit potential for Andhra Pradesh at Rs 1.09 lakh crore for farm and non-farm sector activities under the priority sector for the financial year 2013-14. This would be 28 per cent over the current financial year’s credit potential for the sector.

At a consultative Credit Seminar for the year 2013-14 held here on Tuesday, Nabard officials presented a roadmap for investments in agriculture and rural development sectors in the State.

This will act as the basis for preparation of the Annual Credit Plan by the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) for the upcoming financial year. “We have prepared this roadmap in consultation with the officials of various departments and banks,” K.R. Nair, Chief General Manager of Nabard (AP) said.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has asked public sector banks and Nabard to find certain deficiencies in different sectors while preparing State credit plans. Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew said the number of small (agriculture) producers were high in the State. “We need to aggregate the produce in order to help them,” she said.

Addressing the seminar, she said irrigation facilities and deployment of post-harvest technologies too were lagging. Poor agronomic practices and dearth of public investments too needed to be discussed.

“You need to help in stepping up public investments in the agriculture and allied sectors such as irrigation and animal husbandry,” she said.

Citing a recent survey, she said six out of 10 farmers in the country were ready to quit farming if they found an alternative.

She also wanted bankers keep an eye on the flow of funds to the targeted sectors. Referring to the skewed location of banks in the urban and rural areas, she wondered where the credit was actually flowing, while asking the bankers to discuss this issue.

>kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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