NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, OCT 5
In order to increase the income of farmers as envisaged under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat”, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will finance two FPOs to set up organic spices seed parks in Banaskantha and Patan districts in Gujarat for the promotion of organic seed value chain of fennel and cumin, respectively, a senior official of NABARD said here on Monday.
Speaking to media persons, NABARD Chairman Dr G R Chintala said, “Two organic spices seed parks will come up in Banaskantha and Patan districts, respectively, for fennel and cumin, to cater to the growing demand for organic products in both domestic and international markets. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani released the sanction letters for the NABARD-supported innovative project.”
“Gujarat produces a lot of spices, and most are produced using fertilisers and pesticides. Even in India, there are so many customers who want to go for organic. The two organic spices seed parks, one in Banaskantha and the other one in Patan district, are run through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and have been financed by NABARD. Later on, this will be replicated in other parts of the country,” said Chintala.
CM Shri @vijayrupanibjp today met NABARD Chairman Shri G.R.Chintala and discussed how Gujarat-NABARD can work together to help India become a 5-trillion dollar economy and #AtmaNirbharBharat, also released sanction letters for the NABARD-supported innovative projects in the state pic.twitter.com/ceKpPUrWmB
— CMO Gujarat (@CMOGuj) October 5, 2020
Chief General Manager, NABARD, Gujarat, D K Mishra said that the country’s apex agriculture financial institution has offered a grant of Rs 23 lakh to each park.
“We seek to create an entire value chain and capacity building for farmers. We are covering 50 farmers in each of the two parks. We will use the seeds for production and will market it after grading, sorting, and packaging. We will market in such a manner that farmers associated with the FPOs get the seed,” Mishra said, adding that the effort is to build the process for captive use.
Chintala said that he also talked about the cryogenic processing of spices during his meeting with the chief minister and other dignitaries.
“Spices should not lose flavour. Through cryo processing, the flavour will stay until it reaches the last customers. That kind of facility can come here. Whatever we are doing, we should be quality conscious. Agriculture should be customer-centric and quality-centric, and not farmer-centric,” he said.
The NABARD chairman said a good amount of credit offtake has happened in the agriculture sector on the back of record Rabi crop and Kharif showing.
“From the normal Rs 90,000 crore which we generally give for crop loans at subsidised rates, we have decided to give up to Rs 1.20 lakh crore. We have crossed around Rs 40,000 crore (mark so far this financial year). Rs 80,000 crore is for long-term operations targets. Right now, NABARD refinance has crossed Rs 20,000 crore,” he said.
He further said that with the new farm loans in place, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and FPOs can become “alternative marketing infrastructure” for farmers, adding that NABARD has committed Rs 5 crore for computerisation of PACs and urged the Gujarat government to support by way of matching grant contribution.
“We are working in the direction to create a viable agri procurement and marketing infrastructure so that both domestic and international markets can be tapped. Now we are working with the central government and having discussions… We require absolute quality control and traceability for this,” he said.
In Gujarat, NABARD has released Rs 2,250 crore for refinancing in the current year so far. Credit flow for the priority sector is Rs 57,851 so far this financial year compared to Rs 70,877 during the same period last year, and Rs 1,84,212 crore last year, Mishra said.
Dr. Chintala highlighted the significant contribution of the Gujarat State Government under RIDF during the past 25 years with a cumulative sanction of about Rs. 30,000 crores. He elaborated upon the use of UV tunnel technology etc. for fruits like Banana that will increase its shelf life and enhance export value. He said there is a need to showcase Indian Agriculture to the world. He also solicited the help of State Government functionaries for geo-tagging of Storage facilities in Gujarat.
Sanitation Literacy Campaign (WASH)
The Chief Minister also inaugurated the Sanitation Literacy Campaign, conceptualized by NABARD to promote literacy on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and focus on behavioural change, through 100 programmes that are going to be conducted in different parts of Gujarat. Under this initiative, Rs 20,000 will be given to each household to construct a toilet, Chintala said.
Others who attended the meeting were Jayadrathsinh Parmar, Minister of State for Agriculture and Ishwarsinh Patel, Minister of State for Cooperation Anil Mukim, Chief Secretary, Gujarat and other Senior State Govt. officials.
