Nabard pegs TN credit outlay at Rs 77,803 cr

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has pegged Rs 77,803.49 crore as the potential bank credit for 2012-13 in Tamil Nadu. This will be an 18 per cent growth over the ground level credit target of Rs 66,161 crore in 2011-12.

The credit potential comprises crop loan at Rs 31,574.14 crore, agricultural term loan of Rs 17,010.05 crore, non-farm sector at Rs 14,032.35 crore and other priority sector at Rs 15,186.94 crore, said Lalitha Venkatesan, chief general manager, Nabard.

Of the total credit, short-term will be 40.6 per cent, she added.

“The real challenge for agriculture is to enhance capital from both public and private sectors in research, infrastructure, including market, cold storage, warehouse and others.” The other major challenge is labour shortage, for which mechanisation is the solution, she said.

Reserve Bank of India regional director NS Vishwanathan added, banks' performance in the state was much better compared with other parts of the country. For instance, the CD ratio of the banks in Tamil Nadu was 117 per cent compared with the national average 72-73 per cent.

“However, we (Banks) need to scale up and improve supply-side infrastructure,” he said

On financial inclusion in Tamil Nadu, he said the target was to cover 4,500 villages, with a population of 2,000, by March 2012. "In the State Level Bankers' meet, we had decided to achieve it before December 2011. As of September, 75 per cent of the banks have achieved it,” said Vishwanathan on the sidelines of the State Credit Seminar, organised by Nabard.

Sharad Sharma, chief general manager, State Bank of India, said SBI had been allocated 900 villages, as part of financial inclusion programme in the state, and the target was to be achieved by March 2012. “But we have achieved in November 2011 itself -- half of the villages are covered by bank's branches and rest through the business correspondence model,” said Sharma.