The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has estimated the potential for credit deployment in the state to the tune of Rs 37,000 crore during 2010-11.
Speaking after inaugurating the 1,001 Joint Liability Group (JLG) and 75th Farmers’ Club launched by the Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) at the Kuradikeri Village near here, Nabard chief general manager Venkatesh Tagat said Rs 17,250 crore had been earmarked for the crop loans and Rs 6,674 crore for term credit in agriculture and allied activities. The non-farming sector would get Rs 13,340.53 crore including agro and food processing sector and other priority sector activities, he said.
Karnataka was one of the pioneer states in microfinance. The cumulative number of self help groups (SHGs) formed stood at 519,000 covering nearly 7.8 million rural families. As many as 28,780 fresh groups had been credit-linked and 34,549 SHGs had been repeat financed with bank loan assistance of Rs 475.01 crore, taking the cumulative credit support to Rs 4,750.75 crore. Nearly Rs 222.87 crore was released as refinance for 19,678 groups, covering about 200.000 groups. The programme was being implemented through 73 banks and 720 NGOs, he said.
Tagat said JLG was a new concept where a group of four to 10 poor individuals come together for receiving credit from formal financial institutes on an individual or joint basis against the mutual guarantee. Nabard provides incentives to form JLGs. During this fiscal, 782 farmers clubs were formed taking the cumulative number of farmer’s clubs to 5,194. These clubs shall enable farmers to have better access to credit, technology and other facilities. As many as 18 programmes were sanctioned to various farmers clubs that enables them to visit various research institutes and progressive farmers to get exposure on new technologies, he said and commended the role of the KVGB in promoting the farmer’s clubs.
Vasudev Kalakundri, general manager, KVGB, said KVGB had linked 1,001 JLGs within three months and an action plan for Rs 5 crore had already been worked out to set up at least one farmer’s club in each village within the jurisdiction of KVGB in coming years. KVGB has 2,097 villages under its jurisdiction, having 520 farmer’s club as on today, he said.
