NCDC disburses over Rs 5,700 cr to agri co-operative societies

The government's agri-financing body National Co-operative Development Corporation today said it disbursed over Rs 5,700 crore to cooperative societies during the last financial year.

The disbursal was about 8-9 per cent higher than the 2013-14 fiscal.

"We disbursed over Rs 5,700 crore during last fiscal, of which about Rs 3,600 crore was for marketing and procurement of agricultural produce," NCDC Managing Director Vasudha Mishra said on the sidelines of an award function.

"We have set a loan disbursal target of Rs 5,600 crore in 2015-16 fiscal, but we will do more than that," she told PTI.

Mishra said the corporation has surplus from last year and will raise more funds from banks to meet the disbursal target.

NCDC was established by an Act of Parliament in 1963 as a statutory corporation under the Union Agriculture Ministry for developing rural economic activities through co-operatives.

Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundaria today presented NCDC award for Co-operative Excellence-2014 to 31 best performing co-operatives from different states.

NCDC gave 28 state-level awards and 3 national awards this year.

Underlining the key role of NCDC, Kundaria said the schemes are helping co-operatives build infrastructure for storage, cold storage and agro-based processing units in the rural areas. It also assists them in distribution of agriculture inputs and marketing of agriculture produce to give better price to farmers.

The minister said that NCDC has so far disbursed more than Rs 52,000 crore for various co-operatives development programmes.

The period of repayment of loan ranges from 3 to 8 years. The rate of interest varies from time to time.