National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has prepared over Rs 18,000 crore Potential Linked Credit Plans for all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir for 2016-17.
"NABARD has prepared Potential Linked Credit Plans for all the districts and assessed priority sector credit potential of Rs 18058.50 crore for Jammu and Kashmir for 2016-17," Chief General Manager (CGM), NABARD, J&K, Shanker A Pande told reporters here today.
He said the strategy to enhance the credit support to priority sectors was discussed in State Credit Seminar 2016-17, inaugurated by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region.
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Banks are expected to gear up to disburse incremental loans to agriculture and priority sectors in the state during 2016-17 and NABARD would be willing to increase its refinance support manifold, he said.
On the implementation of government-sponsored subsidy schemes, he said NABARD sanctioned aggregate subsidy support of Rs 40.80 crore under various Government Sponsored Schemes during 2015-16.
"This covered assistance to farmers and entrepreneurs for the purposes such as dairy development, solar lighting, rural godowns, agri clinics, agri business centres, etc," he said.
Regarding area development schemes for Capital formation in agriculture,Pande said for bringing efficiency in production and enhancing the productivity, farmers need to make long-term investments.
"Asset creation and technological improvement in farming is also necessary for sustainable growth in agriculture which calls for adequate investment credit supply by banks," he added.
NABARD, with the active involvement of financing banks and district development agencies in the state has been able to launch nine area development schemes in various districts of J&K, he said.
CGM said these schemes are primarily meant for financing of dairy animals, sheep and goat rearing and apple plantations.
Out of the 5 schemes launched in five districts in phase I, banks have reported disbursement of Rs 18 crore bank credit to dairy activities.
On the issue of loan assistance to state government for creating rural infrastructure, CGM said during 2015-16, under its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), NABARD sanctioned new projects with loan assistance of Rs 354 crore to J & K.
"This signifies all-time high sanction accorded in the past few years. This would enable the government to take up as many as 137 rural infrastructure projects, covering Roads and Bridges, health and animal/sheep husbandry sectors", he said.
Regarding NABARD's all-round support for development of J
& K for 2015-16, he said during the year, the bank has made multifaceted contributions for the development of the state through its financial support and promotional interventions.
In tune with its mandate to bring about agriculture and rural development and inclusive growth, NABARD made substantive interventions in critical areas such as agricultural and rural credit, microfinance, strengthening of rural financial institutions, profitability of smallholder agriculture, financial inclusion, etc, he added.
Other plans included institutional and technological development in rural financial institutions, area development schemes for increasing ground level credit by banks, Supervision of Rural Financial Institutions (RFIs).
During 2015-16, against sanction of Rs 596.23 lakh under various promotional initiatives viz. MCID, FIF, FSPF, PRODUCE Fund, OFDF, R&D an amount of Rs 324.77 lakh were disbursed.
Regarding the Climate Change, CGM said climate change is for real and it is happening.
"It is affecting the lives of people in J & K and is a major challenge for agriculture, food security and rural livelihood.
Poor, marginalised and rural communities are hit the hardest by the adverse impacts of climate change," he added.
NABARD has been designated as the National Implementation Entity for the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) and India's National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC).
Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) have been envisaged as a strategy for purveying credit to small and marginal farmers, landless farmers, oral lessees, share croppers, etc., reducing their dependence on informal sources of credit, as also to augment flow of credit to landless farmers who are unable to provide land title as guarantee, he added.
For the first time in J & K, a modest beginning was made with the initiative and support by NABARD in financing of over 300 JLGs by banks during 2014-15.
On the issue of Farmers' Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmers' Clubs for Collectivisation, he said over 90 per cent of the farm holdings in the state are small and marginal with average holding of 0.67 ha.
"This poses challenge to farmers in terms of profitability of agricultural operations and calls for collective approach to farming for attaining economies of scale in their operations as also accessing services such as improved technology, farm extension and banking facilities collectively," he added.
