NE BUSINESS BUREAU
VELAGAPUDI (AP), MAR 27
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) prepared the State Focus Paper (SFP) for Andhra Pradesh’s credit for the year 201-2022 at Rs. 2.31 lakh crore.
The SFP was released at the state-level Credit seminar held at the State secretariat at Velagapudi on Friday (March 26, 2021) by the Andhra Pradesh Minister for Agriculture & Cooperation, Marketing & Food Processing Kurasala Kannababu in the presence of Sundaram Shankar, General Manager, Reserve Bank of India and Sudhir Kumar Jannawar, Chief General Manager of NABARD’s AP Regional Office.
Releasing the SFP, Mr. Kurasala Kannababu congratulated NABARD for its proactive role in fostering rural prosperity. The minister also acknowledged various challenges facing the agrarian sector and shed light upon the roadmap for achieving sustained growth in farm incomes and reducing the burden of farmers.
He appreciated NABARD for supporting the State’s initiatives aimed at creating infrastructure in agriculture, irrigation, social and rural connectivity sectors.
The minister exhorted the bankers to keep abreast of the various programmes/plans of the state government and ensure that the credit plan prepared by them for FY 2021-22 factors these initiatives.
He also stressed on augmentation of regular credit flow to even the tenant farmers, which is also a thrust area of the GoAP.
In order to build vibrant and sustainable farmer collectives, while assuring the support of the GoAP to provide an enabling conducivd environment, Mr. Kannababu stressed on the need for enhancing the skills and capacities of the farmers.
He also requested the bankers to support creation of farm gate infrastructure under AIF and also for establishment of Janata Bazaars, the pet project of the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“Bankers are Partners’ in progress’’
Addressing at the seminar Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das commended the banking fraternity for being the “Partners in progress” of the State, stressed upon the continuing need of timely and adequate availability of credit to all sections of the society to ensure that each and every Citizen is also part of the growth story of the State.
In her address Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah indicated that State is committed in its efforts to doubling of farmers’ income and outlined the various initiatives like establishment of Rythu Bharosa Kendras and Custom Hiring Centres, formulation of State level policy for food processing and the efforts being taken for setting up of secondary food processing cluster. She also stressed upon adequate credit flow to fisheries sector.
Sundaram Shankar, General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, appeals the bankers to align their credit plan as per the potential assessed by NABARD for the year 2021-22. He also requested the banker to ensure credit flow to new MSME taking advantage of the recent guidelines issued by RBI.
Sudhir Kumar Jannawar, Chief General Manager of NABARD’s AP Regional Office said NABARD has extended financial support of Rs. 27,992 crore during 2019- 20 and more than Rs. 32,000 crore so far in the current fiscal to Government of Andhra Pradesh, various corporations and banks in the State.
He said, NABARD has dovetailed its developmental agenda with the policy directives of the State for achieving faster and inclusive sustainable development.
Mr Sudhir Kumar said that the State Focus Paper (SFP) prepared by NABARD, which has projected a credit potential of Rs. 2.31 lakh crore under priority sectors for Andhra Pradesh for 2021-22, an increase of 9% over the potential assessed for FY 2020-21 by NABARD.
Credit potential for Agriculture sector has been assessed at Rs. 1.58 lakh crore, forming 68% of the total potential identified under priority sectors.
Crop loan potential of Rs 1.13 lakh crore has been identified. Potential for agriculture term loan (ATL) has been assessed at Rs. 31,805 crore, with major components being animal husbandry (Rs. 12,606 crore), farm mechanisation (Rs 3,768 crore), fisheries (Rs 3,451 crore) and horticulture (Rs.2,624 crore).
With regard to agri infrastructure and ancillary activities, potential of Rs 12,716 crore has been assessed, with food processing (Rs 3,766 crore) and construction of storage and marketing infrastructure (Rs 2,574 crore) being the major components.
Rs 47,402 crore credit potential has been assessed for MSME sector and Rs 26,194 crore under other priority sectors, with major components being housing (Rs 14,335 crore), export credit (Rs 2,881 crore) and education (Rs 1,584 crore).
The credit potential assessed acts as a road map to banks for extending loans to priority sectors as mandated by RBI and for Government Departments for providing funds for bridging key infrastructure gaps.
B Uday Bhaskar, GM NABARD made a detailed presentation on the sector-wise credit potential assessed, issues and critical interventions that need to be addressed in order to achieve the credit potential assessed for 2021-22.
Mr Bhaskar also informed that the theme for SFP for 2021-22 is “Collectivization of Agricultural Produce for enhancing Farmer’s Income”, keeping in view the benefits of aggregation of farmers into Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).
He informed that 293 FPOs have already been promoted by NABARD in the State covering more than 1 lakh farmers, which is in line with the vision of the Government.
The new Central Sector Scheme for promotion of 10,000 FPOs is a huge step in this direction by Government of India, with NABARD being an active partner in the endeavour. There exists tremendous potential for the formation and nurturing of new FPOs to encourage collectivization for increasing the income of farmers and boosting the overall growth of the agricultural economy.
K Sunitha, Principal Secretary, A R Anuradha, Principal Secretary, Madhusudhan Reddy, Special Secretary and A Babu, Registrar of Cooperative Societies also spoke.
The meeting was attended by senior government officials and senior officials of RBI and major banks, a release from NABARD said.
