Chief Minister Shri Ashok Gehlot has said that farmers and agriculture are the main axis of the country's economy and their upliftment is the top priority of the State Government. Banking sector cooperation is important in the development of this sector. Along with NABARD and cooperative banks, the nationalized banks of the country should also extend credit facilities for agriculture and allied sectors, so that the financial needs of the farmers are met on time and their prosperity is paved.
Gehlot was addressing NABARD's State Level Debt Seminar on 2021-22 through a video conference at the Chief Minister's residence on Tuesday. On this occasion, he also released NABARD's 'State Focus Paper: Year 2021-22'. He said that the geographical conditions of Rajasthan are uneven, but there are immense possibilities of development in the agricultural sector. Keeping this in mind, for the progress of infrastructure in agriculture, NABARD, RBI and other banks should increase the ratio of long-term agricultural credit to agriculture by 20 percent. Currently this ratio is 20 percent of the total agricultural credit.
The Chief Minister said that the farmer of the country is choked with debt, to make it prosperous, along with expansion in credit facilities, bold decisions like debt waiver are needed. As soon as our government was formed in the state, we made the first decision to waive farmers' debt, benefiting about 20 lakh farmers of the state. If nationalized banks cooperate in this, then more farmers can get the benefit. In this regard, we have also written a letter to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to make a lump sum agreement plan.
Shri Gehlot said that in order to provide the farmers with a reasonable price for the crop, it is necessary that the procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) be close to the farmers' fields. For this it is necessary to strengthen the Village Service Cooperative Societies (GSSS) and develop other basic facilities including storage capacity there. NABARD can play a big role in this task.
He said that in the past, about 550 Village Service Cooperative Societies were authorized for purchase on MSP in Rajasthan by giving the status of secondary mandi, which had positive results.
The Chief Minister urged NABARD and Reserve Bank officials to work more closely with the state government to speed up development in all areas by connecting more and more people to banking services.
He said that to increase agriculture and institutional credit, more and more farmers should get the benefit of 'Kisan Credit Card' scheme. He also stressed on strengthening the banking system and speedy redressal of grievances through technological innovations.
Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya said that banking priorities should be combined with the state's priorities, so that credit facilities can be enhanced in the respective areas as per their requirement. He said that financial pressure has increased on the states due to the Kovid epidemic, in which institutions like NABARD should give some relaxation to the rules for providing loans for rural development schemes.
Regional Director of Reserve Bank of India Shri Arun Kumar Singh said that the State Government has done important work towards financial management and reforms even in the era of Kovid epidemic. He said that the state government should speed up the process of digitizing land revenue records with the promotion of digital banking and digital payments, given the geographical conditions of Rajasthan.
Deputy General Manager of the State Level Banking Committee, Mr. Yogesh Aggarwal said that banking services have expanded rapidly in the state in the last few years. He assured that all banks would cooperate fully to achieve the goals of State Focus Paper of NABARD.
NABARD's Chief General Manager Mr. Jaideep Srivastava said that NABARD has assessed a credit potential of Rs 2.33 lakh crore for the priority sector in the year 2021-22 in Rajasthan, which is 10.4 percent higher than the previous year. He informed that NABARD had assessed a credit potential of Rs 2.11 lakh crore during the year 2020-21. He said that we are also trying to promote Farmer Producer Groups (FPOs) in the state. There is a target of setting up about 500 new FPOs in Rajasthan in the next three years.
General Manager of NABARD, Mr. Kuldeep Singh gave a presentation on the State Focus Paper. He informed that agriculture and allied sectors contribute about 26 percent of the state's gross domestic product in the priority sector in Rajasthan. Accordingly, NABARD has assessed a credit potential of Rs 1.42 lakh crore for agriculture sector, Rs 63794 crore for MSMEs as well as Rs 3398 crore for renewable energy. NABARD General Manager Shri Venkata Krishna proposed the vote of thanks.
On this occasion, Advisor to the Chief Minister Shri Govind Sharma and Principal Secretary to Agriculture Shri Key Lal Meena were also present. Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, other senior officials of various departments, representatives of agricultural universities, representatives and district level officers of various banks and other officials related to banking, agriculture and co-operation were present in the seminar through video conference.