Nabard performance all time high in Maha

An all-time high in providing financial support to agriculture and rural development in Maharashtra was achieved by Nabard with a disbursement to the tune of Rs 6023.18 crore during the just concluded 2011-12 fiscal as against Rs 3532.49 crore during the previous year, registering a significant growth of 71 per cent.

Nabard supported Cooperative Banks and Gramin Banks with Rs 4035.50 crore in the State to disburse crop loans to farmers, showing a record growth of 79 per cent over the previous year (2010-11), according to a report released by the nodal agriculture bank's Maharashtra office here.

A sum of Rs 1777.84 crore was advanced by Nabard to support creation of rural infrastructure like roads and bridges, irrigation projects, drinking water besides new projects like rural warehousing, Waste Water Management, Public Health and Anganwadi Centres registering an increase of 58 per cent over 2010-11.

 

"For the first time, a special allocation of Rs 2000 crore was made to Nabard for warehouse financing under RIDF by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget for 2011-12. At the National level, Nabard achieved 100 per cent utilization of the fund during the year, by sanctioning warehousing projects to the state governments and private sector agencies through banks."

"Maharashtra stood at the top amongst all the states with a sanction of loan of Rs 460 crore (31 per cent of All India Total) under RIDF. Nabard also provided support through various banks to the extent of '.50 crore under this Special Warehousing Refinance Scheme. This is expected to create around 7.65 lakh metric tonnes of warehousing infrastructure, particularly for storage of food grains in the state and would thereby help farmers avoid distress sale of their produce," the report, released by Chief General Manager M V Ashok said.

In tune with the changing needs of external environment, an initiative to support Producers' Organisation through credit and credit-plus activities was launched by Nabard.

During the year, an amount of Rs 39.33 lakhs was sanctioned to Devanagri Producers Company, promoted by a Non- Governmental Oragnisation Yuva Mitra, for setting up an 'Agrimall' at Sinnar in Nasik district.

Proposals have been received from 25 other Producers Organisations formed under the Companies Act and as well under Cooperative Societies Act, which are under "active consideration," the Nabard report enlisting its measures in Maharashtra, noted.

To further the cause of scarce natural resources, seven new projects with a commitment of Rs 27.46 crore were sanctioned for implementation by NGOs under the Umbrella Project for Natural Resources Management (UPNRM).

With a view to creating much-needed infrastructure with private sector involvement and to promote livelihood opportunities in rural areas, Nabard disbursed an amount of Rs 92.74 crore subsidy to various banks on behalf of beneficiaries under various Government of India Subsidy Schemes.