The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has extended financial support of Rs 7,640 crore in 2012-13 to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, a growth of 34.34 per cent from Rs 5,687.56 crore in 2011-12.
It had sanctioned Rs 1,181.10 crore for various infrastructure projects under its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) during the period. An amount of Rs 1,096 crore was released for creating irrigation works, schools, godowns/ warehouses and rural connectivity, etc.
From the Rs 5,000-crore exclusive corpus announced in the Union Budget for 2012-13 for creation of warehousing facilities, Tamil Nadu was sanctioned Rs 264.04 crore and Rs 146.21 crore was released for construction of rural godowns and cold storage facilities.
Under its investment credit portfolio for capital formation in agriculture, refinance support extended to all banks stood at Rs 1,463.67 crore in 2012-13. Short-term refinance extended to cooperative banks and regional rural banks for crop loans was Rs 3,307 crore, for marketing and other short-term loans it was Rs 545.50 crore; weavers' societies Rs 205.09 crore and loans to cooperative banks for miscellaneous purposes under a new line of credit was Rs 160 crore, a bank release stated.
Under its watershed development programme, 148 watersheds in 24 districts of the state covering 173,000 hectares were being covered through grant and loan support, it added.
