NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, FEB 11
Gujarat has cumulatively received lion’s share of 9.95 percent of the total Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) disbursed by the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) across the country in 25 tranches from 1994-95, a top official of the institution said here on Tuesday.
Chief General Manager of Nabard (Gujarat) D K Mishra said this a day ahead of State Credit Seminar to be held in Gandhinagar tomorrow, Wednesday.
Mishra said, “Chief Minister Vijay Rupani will launch the ‘State Focus Paper’ 2020-21 for Gujarat prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) at this seminar on Wednesday. Before the commencement of the seminar, the Chief Minister will flag off three mobile vans of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB). These vans were bought under the fInancial inclusion fund of the NABARD. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, and Agriculture Minister will also attend this seminar.”
“The National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) has cumulatively given Rs 30,000 crore to Gujarat under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), which constitutes 9.95 per cent of total RIDF deployed across the country. Nearly 70 per cent of the fund accounts for irrigation infrastructure, with Rs 13,000 crore lent to the state for Saurashtra-Narmada Avataran Irrigation (Sauni) Yojana,” Mishra said.
The National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development’s refinancing to banks for lending to priority sectors in Gujarat fell by Rs 1,600 crore to Rs 9,000 crore during April-December 2019 compared to the same period of the last fiscal, a senior official said on Tuesday. The fall was due to lack of growth in agriculture term lending, the official said.
The financial institution, fully owned by the Government of India, provided Rs 10,600 crore to banks in Gujarat as refinance in the April-December 2018 period.
“In the first nine-month period ended on December 31, 2019, we have given Rs 9,000 crore to banks as refinancing. The figure was Rs 10,600 crore for the same period last year, and Rs 11,400 crore during the entire financial year 2018-19. The figure is low due to a fall in credit growth which has impacted refinancing. Slowdown situation is a reason behind the fall. The growth is not happening in agriculture term lending, but it has now picked up,” Mishra said.
“This year we gave fund for river rejuvenation and set up solar panel to farmers’ fields under RIDF,” he said. Nabard has also given Rs 3,600 crore under long-term irrigation fund (LTIF) for the Sardar Sarovar project, being implemented for the last three years.
Mishra noted that this is one of the 90 projects identified by the Central government which was halted due to fund crunch. Speaking about the current financial year, Mishra said Nabard has sanctioned Rs 749 crore as dairy infrastructure development fund to two milk unions – Banas Dairy and Sabar Dairy – for capacity expansion.
“We are also going to operationalise a few new funds like micro-irrigation fund, fisheries infrastructure development fund, and agriculture marketing infrastructure fund,” he said. Nabard has formed 190 farmer producer organisations (FPOs), including 35 this fiscal year, covering around 35,000 cultivators and “we are going to add 15 more FPOs this (fiscal) year in Gujarat, he said.
In Gujarat, the financial institution had estimated Rs 1.15 lakh crore as credit potential for FY 2019-20.
“Nabard is working in tandem with Tata Chemicals, Reliance Foundation and Ambuja Foundation for the betterment of the farmers and rural infrastructure development in Gujarat. Governor Acharya Devvrat will inaugurate the buyer-seller meet of agriculture produce in Ahmedabad on February 28,” he added.
