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The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) expects a 50 growth in credit disbursals to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to Rs 21,000 crore during fiscal 2015-16.
“We expect disbursals in Andhra Pradesh to be slightly ahead at Rs 11,000 crore and in Telangana at Rs 10,000 crore in the financial year 2015-16. Both the states are actively involved in rural development activities and thereby we are confident of realising the target,” said Jiji Mammen, chief general manager of Nabard, Andhra Pradesh.
The bank clocked a five per cent growth in disbursements in both the regions at Rs 14,109 crore for the fiscal 2014-15, as against Rs 13,409 crore in 2013-14. Disbursals include those to agriculture refinance, agri investment credit and rural infra development fund (RIDF) allocation. Credit worth Rs 6,200 went into short-term agri production, Rs 4,812 crore for agri investment and Rs 2,258 crore for RIDF.
It registered a 12 per cent growth in overall business to Rs 285,000 crore in 2014-15, as against Rs 250,000 crore last year.
Mammen said factors including cyclones, state bifurcation, cooperative bank structure and a spell of uncertainty over farm loan waiver led to underachievement in disbursals in the regions during last fiscal. "We fell short of realising disbursals worth Rs 3,000 crore in the last fiscal," said Mammen.
The regional office of Nabard here has been bifurcated creating a dedicated Telangana regional office with the new chief general manager taking office with effect from today.
Also, there will be two separate cooperative banks operating in the two states, namely APCOB and TSCOB, starting from today. Mammen said the Andhra Pradesh regional office in Amravathi would be set up in the next 1-2 years.
On the priorities this financial year, he said, Nabard would raise lending to the Telangana government'’s Mission Kakatiya irrigation project, higher disbursals for setting up new warehouses in both the states besides capacity building the farmer producing organisations (FPOs). It had provided Rs 360 crore for developing 1,600 ponds under the mission last fiscal. For establishing warehouses, out of the Rs 5,000 crore national corpus, funds worth Rs 1300 crore had been sanctioned for both regions.
The bank also has formed regional advisory groups (think tanks) and technical groups for both the states to assist in advancing the lending mechanisms. It is also taking up a self-help group (SHG) digitisation drive, with the pilot to be taken up in Medak district in Telangana this year.
