Haryana Finance Minister, Capt Abhimanyu on Tuesday said that the State Government is working on a policy to make the agriculture sector more profitable by bringing in reforms in this sector.
The Finance Minister said this while releasing the ‘state focus paper’ at the state credit seminar-2016-17 for Haryana organised by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) here.
The theme of the seminar was ‘Accelerating the pace of capital formation in agriculture and allied sectors’. The ‘state focus paper 2016-17’ envisages bankable credit potential estimates of Rs 106335 crore under priority sector lending in Haryana for the financial year 2016-17, projecting growth of 19 percent over the state credit plan for the current year (2015-16).
In the state focus paper 2016-17, the bankable credit potential under crop loan has been estimated at Rs 47857 crore contributing 45 percent of the total priority sector credit estimates. The agricultural term loan credit (investment credit)potential, which supports capital formation, has been projected at Rs 22,885 crore (51% growth over projections for 2015-16). The credit projections for micro small enterprise sector and other priority sectors were estimated at Rs 19,487 crore and Rs 16,102 crore respectively.
Overall, the credit potential for agriculture and allied activities at Rs 70,742 crore account for 67% of the total credit potentials estimated for the state of Haryana for the year 2016-17.
Capt Abhimanyu, in his address, thanked NABARD for the efforts taken in preparing potential linked credit plans (PlPs) for all the districts of Haryana, which form the basis for preparation of state focus paper.
He said that he had no doubt that state level credit projections of Rs 106335 crore for the year 2016-17, for the state will be fully realized with active participation of the banks.
Expressing concern over loans being provided by banks under Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA), Capt. Abhimanyu said that banks should work more aggressively under this scheme. He said that regional rural bank has achieved only 69 per cent of its target of credit deposit ratio, which is less than the state average.
He urged banks and Government Departments to work together to translate the potential plan prepared by NABARD into a reality for the betterment of the farmers and rural masses of the state.
NABARD has been supporting creation of rural infrastructure for about two decades (since 1996) under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) which ultimately increases credit absorption capacity of agriculture and rural economy. The scope for infrastructure projects, which are critical for the development of the state was presented in the seminar along with the required interventions in the form of projects to bridge the infrastructure gaps and the assessment of corresponding investments.
The need for diversification of cropping pattern, measures to improve soil health, measures to augment and conserve water resources and challenges under each of the economic sub-sectors that need to be addressed by banks and government were also deliberated in the seminar.