Nabard rolls out Rs 5,900 cr for area based plan in Odisha

Rural infrastructure lender National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), has rolled out a sector specific plan to address the needs of the credit requirement in Odisha with an outlay of Rs 5,912 crore.

The 'Sectoral Development & Banking Plan' aims at providing comprehensive credit to six identified sectors. Out of total outlay of Rs 5,912.23 crore, the bank loan component is Rs 4,729.78 crore.

The six identified sectors are farm mechanisation, dairy development, fisheries development, poultry development, plantation and floriculture activities to be implemented in three years between 2016-17 and 2018-19.

"Capital formation in agriculture is a necessary pre-condition for enhancement of productivity and production. Therefore, investment credit in agriculture is one of the central areas of the policies of government. With this objective in view, Nabard has been emphasizing on formulation and implementation of area based schemes (ABSs) which would cater to the single purpose small projects/schemes for implementation on a cluster basis in a time bound manner to suit to the needs of the local farmers/entrepreneurs", Nabard said in its State Focus Paper for 2017-18 released recently.

Initially, the area based schemes are being implemented in the state namely on three activities-fresh water fish farming, dairy development and farm mechanisation in selected districts. The scheme was introduced by Nabard in 2014-15.

" From the 2016-17, the plan has been extended to all the districts of Odisha. The cost component for developing the sector specific projects has been included in the plan. The sectors identified are specific to Odisha only", said a Nabard official.

The plan has already been approved by State Level Bankers' Committee in the meeting held on November 22 2016 and the banks have been asked to achieve the target within the time frame, he added.