AP gets highest credit from Nabard

State gets total credit support of Rs 2,831.56 crore for 2003-04

Andhra Pradesh has received the highest credit assistance from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) than any other state in the country for the year ended March 31, 2004. Nabard extended a total credit support of Rs 2,831.56 crore in Andhra Pradesh for spurring economic growth in rural areas.

Of the total credit, investment credit support to regional rural banks (RRBs) was Rs 607.30 crore, RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) loans to the state government were Rs 648.35 crore and production credit support to co-operative banks and RRBs was Rs 1,575.91 crore.

During 2002-03, Nabard's assistance was Rs 2,875 crore. The marginal decline in assistance was due to fall in investment credit to the banks, Nabard officials told media persons.

J R Sarangal, chief general manager of Nabard's Andhra Pradesh operations, said that under the RIDF- IX scheme, the state received fresh loans to the tune of Rs 868.21 crore for improving critical rural infrastructure.

Loans to the tune of Rs 648.35 crore were disbursed during 2003-04. Assistance was extended for a wide spectrum of areas covering irrigation, soil and moisture conservation, forestry, rural water supply, etc, he said. An amount of Rs 279 crore was sanctioned for the AP Micro Irrigation Project.

Andhra Pradesh continues to dominate the micro finance scenario in the country with a credit disbursement of Rs 623.12 crore during 2003-04. Credit was provided to an estimated 1.96 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) in the state, including about 80,000 new groups.

Nabard provided refinance support of Rs 310 crore to the banks for SHG-bank linkage programme, in 2003-04. Cumulatively, Rs 1,846.58 crore of bank credit was disbursed to more than 3.55 lakh SHGs since 1995-96. The average finance extended to each SHG group has improved from Rs 27,452 during 2002-03 to Rs 31,827 during 2003-04.

Nabard supports long term private investments for agriculture, allied activities, non-farm sector, SHGs etc. Under the investment credit scheme, it extends refinance to banks at rates ranging from 5.5 per cent to 6.75 per cent.

The regional office disbursed refinance of Rs 607.30 crore to the banks in the state in 2003-04. Of this, RRBs availed of Rs 305.15 crore, commercial banks Rs 229.8 crore and co-operative banks Rs 72.57 crore.

A major chunk of refinance was availed for the SHG-bank linkage programme at Rs 310.4 crore followed by non-farm sector at Rs 102.80 crore, farm mechanisation at Rs 47.77 crore and minor irrigation at Rs 29.36 crore.

Sarangal said a total subsidy of Rs 55.36 crore was disbursed for 445 rural godowns with a storage capacity of 22.15 lakh tonnes.

Cumulatively, since 1999, 30 cold storage projects had been sanctioned with a capacity of 1.6 lakh tonnes and a refinance of Rs 30.46 crore in Andhra Pradesh. Under the Kisan credit card scheme, co-operative banks and RRBs issued 2.71 lakh Kisan credit cards.

Nabard's wholly-owned agricultural consultancy subsidiary, Nabard Consultancy Services (Nabcons), has bagged a few projects in Andhra Pradesh.

Prominent among the consultancy wins is a project for the evaluation of the cattle breeding programme of the AP Livestock Development Agency. Nabcons has recorded revenues of Rs 3.25 lakh during 2003-04.

Sarangal also said that a regional consultative committee on agriculture and rural development (Recard) had been set by Nabard to study the credit flow for agriculture in Andhra Pradesh and suggest strategies which would accelerate flow of credit to the agricultural sector.