Credit disbursed to the farm sector is expected to rise 30 per cent to Rs 1,05,000 crore in 2004-2005, compared with Rs 80,000 crore in 2003-04. |
In Gujarat, farm credit is likely to rise 32.4 per cent to Rs 6091 crore (Rs 4600 crore), according to estimates by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). |
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"To provide impetus for agricultural activities, Union Finance Minister has made several announcements in June this year. This could lead to credit to the farm sector doubling in the next three years. To achieve this target, emphasis has been laid on increasing accessibility of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to farmers, bringing more farmers under the banking net, financing new projects in agriculture and allied activities, establishment of agri clinics, and providing credit to tenant farmers and lessees," Bhawar Puri, chief general manager, Nabard, said. |
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Of the Rs 6091 crore likely to be disbursed in Gujarat, the share of commercial banks is estimated at Rs 2607 crore, RRBs at Rs 3549 crore and Cooperative banks at Rs 3125 crore. |
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It is envisaged that 3760 rural and semi rural branches of the banks, with introduction of 100 new farmers per branch, will bring in its fold about 3.76 lakh new farmers. |
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The efforts of the banks in purveying of credit are being monitored at the highest level and Nabard is the nodal agency for policy implementation, operationalisation, close monitoring and follow up. |
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Nabard will focus on debt restructuring by helping farmers in distress due to drought, flood or natural calamities in any two successive years in the last five years. Farmers in arrears will be eligible for the fresh credit. A one-time settlement scheme (OTS) to cover small and marginal farmers is also being proposed. |
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"For assessing the realistic farm credit, meetings of special district level technical committee (DLTC) in the state were held in almost all the districts and the scales of finance were reviewed and suitably enhanced with active participation of NABARD. We held meetings of chief executives of the district central cooperatives banks (DCCBs) of Gujarat state on August 1, this year. The need for doubling of credit and measures to be taken for achieving the same were explained to the cooperatives banks. They were also advised to give effect to revision of finance as decided by the special DLTCs," said D N Pokale, general manager, Nabard. |
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Meetings of chairmen of RRBs and senior officials of the commercial banks in the state was convened and they were advised to increase the agricultural credit at least by 30 per cent during the current financial year. |
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The banks were advised to avail technical expertise available with Nabard in case of need for formulation and appraisal of projects. |
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Nabard has devised a format to monitor the flow of credit and the information is being collected at regular intervals so as to facilitate proper feedback to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. |
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Finance minister P Chidambram is likely to visit Gujarat and have interaction with the officials of rural branches of banks, farmers and other intermediaries to assess the impact of the steps initiated by the Government of India. |
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