Nabard eyes opportunities in North-East

Given the immense potentiality in generating employment and rural development, handicrafts and handloom will be the prime focus for National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in the coming days in the North East.

Speaking to Business Standard, KG Karmakar, managing director Nabard said, handloom and handicrafts, apart from horticulture, had great potential in North East and would be Nabard's "immediate focus".

More and more clusters of handloom workers and handicraftsmen would be created in the region, in order to extend Nabard's help, he said.

Nabard generally extends help and assistance in designing and marketing of such products. Acknowledging the lack of proper marketing and infrastructure as the basic drawbacks of the region, Karmakar said "We have to open up the border trade with neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, and China".

Once trade volume increases, the region is bound to prosper, he added. The strength of North East is agriculture, thus we need to focus more on agriculture to tap outside markets, he said.

Under a special project, Nabard would take up upgradation of ICT "� information, communication and technology - in the North East, the three essentials for improving quantity and quality of agricultural output.

This is expected to improve agricultural production and the quality of agri commodities produced in the region.

Further, Nabard is in the process of introducing a cheap cash access system for the farmers in the North East in association with other banks, and also studying the feasibility and specifics of micro finance lending in the North East. Impressed by the success of Venture Capital Scheme in North East, Karmakar announced that Nabard would soon extend it for fisheries and pig rearing. Karmakar said, Nabard "gives priority to North East".

It has a special cell to look after the region and will spend a significant amount out of the Rs 750 crore earmarked as its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund in the region.

In a bid to improve marketing of products produced by self help groups (SHGs) in the state, Nabard has taken an initiative to showcase skills of the artisans and weavers, producing various products throughout the state of Assam, in a weeklong Expo.

With micro finance programmes slowly picking up in the country, more and more SHGs are coming up and linking themselves to credit facility from banks and micro finance Institutions.

Many of them have started generating income.

The expo is aimed at supporting these SHGs by improving the marketing of their products. SHGs from across the region, producing wide variety of products, are expected to avail the platform to showcase their products.

Products on display ranged from handloom items of Eri and Muga, utility products from bamboo, decorative items, terro cotta, pottery, etc.

SHGs should take the opportunity provided by the expo to learn the preferences of consumers through interaction during the exhibition like this, said C K Gopalkrishna, chief general manager of Nabard.