National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has extended a record financial support of Rs 15,787 crore for agriculture and rural development in Haryana during the financial year 2017-18.
The support was extended for providing financial assistance to farmers, rural artisans, creation of rural infrastructure and procurement of foodgrains in the state, said an official spokesman.
Refinance support of Rs 7,975 crore was provided to the banks in the state to meet short term and long term credit needs of farmers for carrying out crop production and capital formation in agriculture and rural economy, he said.
In addition, NABARD disbursed Rs 508.27 crore to the State Government to develop rural infrastructure such as roads, bridges, drinking water schemes and irrigation schemes.
To enable the State Government agencies in the procurement of food grains, NABARD sanctioned Rs 3,900 crore to HAFED and HSWC in the Kharif and Rabi marketing seasons of 2017-18. NABARD also sanctioned a term loan of Rs 55 crore for establishing a Mega Food Park at IMT Rohtak to HAFED, he added.
Giving more details, the spokesman said that to give a boost to the socio-economic development sector, NABARD sanctioned two watersheds in Panchkula district, 25 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and 51 Farmers clubs across the state. Awareness campaigns on water conservation were organised in 4,953 villages of the state through volunteers.
In order to empower rural artisans and to give marketing exposure, NABARD sponsored 84 artisans to the Surajkund International Crafts Mela 2018. The Regional Office also released grant assistance of Rs 14.11 crore for strengthening of banking information technology and for capacity building as also financial inclusion, said he.
To promote start ups in different areas of agriculture, NABARD has sanctioned an Agri Business Incubation Centre at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar with grant assistance of Rs 11.75 crore, he added.