NABARD proposes Rs 9,800 cr assistance to Punjab in FY19

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has proposed a 22 per cent year-on-year increase in financial assistance at Rs 9,800 crore to Punjab during 2018-19 fiscal.

"NABARD propose to provide financial assistance of about Rs 9,800 crore in Punjab during 2018-19," Deepak Kumar, Chief General Manager, NABARD said in a statement.

NABARD, the development financial institution catering to agriculture and rural development sanctioned, and disbursed Rs 8,000 crore to various stake holders for the agriculture and rural development in Punjab last year.

"In order to promote capital formation in agriculture, NABARD provided refinance of Rs 2,249.67 crore to various participating banks and refinance of Rs 5,258.26 crore was provided under short term loans for facilitating disbursement of crop loans at concessional interest rate to farmers by cooperative banks and RRBs," he said.

Assistance of Rs 444.82 was sanctioned for creation of critical rural infrastructure facilities in the state.

The CGM said NABARD has taken some initiatives to check paddy straw burning in the state with partner agencies like PAU, Ludhiana and other NGOs in various districts of Punjab.

The initiatives covered an area of approximately 4,600 acres involving about 1,900 farmers spanning over seven districts, and there was not a single instance of paddy straw burning.

The demonstration effect is likely to increase the coverage to more than 10,000 acres during the next harvest season, he said.

Apart from this, NABARD sanctioned proposals for promotion of new 22 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the State. These FPOs will be fully owned by the member farmers and have the responsibility to look after the interests of the farmers in the field of marketing of their produce and procurement of the agricultural inputs, he said.