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Primary agriculture credit societies must look beyond just lending and seek to set up badly needed infrastructure for procuring farm produce and marketing it, according to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
They could look at setting up silos, cold storage units or cold storage, the Chief Minister said while inaugurating the State Credit Seminar and release of the State Focus Paper from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
Agricultural infraThese societies must look beyond their conventional role of agriculture lending and involve themselves in all development activities within their respective areas of jurisdiction.
They have a pivotal role to play in terms of supporting Farmer Producer Organisations for value-addition of agriculture products, the Chief Minister said.
But, the Nabard should amend its norms to provide financial assistance to the producer organisations or start-ups in agriculture sector during the initial stages.
The state is trying to attain self-reliance in vegetable production, but procurement and storage facilities, including cold chain, are lacking. Active involvement of the primary societies could make a difference here, he said.
‘Per drop, more crop’The theme of the State Focus Paper 2018-19 is ‘Per drop, more crop.’ Nabard has assessed a credit potential of ₹1,37,258 crore for the priority sector for the year.
The credit potential for agriculture and allied activities is estimated at ₹64,874 crore, out of which 29 per cent has been assessed as potential for long-term investment in agriculture.
Nabard has identifed area development schemes or focussed financing schemes for dairy, poultry, fisheries, integrated farming and such others in all districts.
Pilot projects to produce and market vegetables throughout the year have been planned in Kottayam, Thrissur, Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts. The focus paper also lays out plans for value addition in agriculture.
Nabard General Manager P Balachandran made a presentation based on the focus paper. Among those who spoke were R Sundar, Chief General Manager, and Usha PT, Deputy General Manager.
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