UP rural credit projected at Rs 1,78,000 crore during 2016-17

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has estimated the rural credit potential of almost Rs 1,78,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh during 2016-17.

The projected outlay of Potential Rural Credit Plan is almost 25 percent higher than the corresponding figure of a little over Rs 1,43,000 crore for the current fiscal. This implies higher credit flow to the rural economy and capital formation in the farm and allied sectors.

The projected credit potential for the next financial year proposes outlay of Rs 1,18,851 crore for agriculture, Rs 25,933 crore for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector and Rs 21,637 crore for sectors viz. education, rural housing, export loan etc.

UP agriculture production commissioner (APC) Pravir Kumar had recently unveiled the State Focus Paper 2016-17 at the State Credit Seminar organized by NABARD here. He stressed the need for capital formation in agriculture in UP, besides increasing training and capacity building amongst farmers.

The meeting covered topics such as overall credit projection, crop production, animal husbandry, fisheries, water resources, plantation and horticulture, rural infrastructure, renewable energy, rural innovations and climate change.

State Focus Paper, which contained the projected outlay for next fiscal, entailed the aggregate of credit potential under different sectors of economy - both farm and non-farm, the status of infrastructure under each sector/sub sector and critical gaps in the respective districts.

Under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, this is part of the decentralised credit planning undertaken by NABARD through consultative process to estimate credit potential in various sectors of economy.

Depending upon the Plan and projections, the commercial banks prepare the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) for UP, fixing individual bank targets under the Lead Bank Scheme.