The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has identified more than half a dozen thrust areas for further promotion and development in agriculture and rural sector while also facilitating deeper penetration of financial inclusion in Uttarakhand during 2013-14.
Addressing the media here, NABARD Uttarakhand regional office chief general manager S Selvaraj said that in 2012-13 the bank had disbursed `1090.33 crore in the form of loan in the State and sanctioned projects worth `367 crore to the State Government.
Speaking of the bank’s activities in 2012-13, Selvaraj said for rural infrastructure development, NABARD disbursed `440 crore loan to the State Government from its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund. Rural infrastructure projects amounting to `367 crore sanctioned by the bank included 89 rural roadworks, 14 minor irrigation projects, 19 rural bridges and two mini hydel projects.
When completed, 584 kms of extra road length will be constructed, widened and renovated, 1244 metres of bridge length added further and an additional crop command area of 8907 hectare brought under irrigation.
Under Government of India’s scheme, a subsidy of `6.58 crore was disbursed to 28 rural godowns and an additional storage capacity of 1,444 lakh tonnes was created during the year with the cumulative capacity created under the scheme standing at 5613 tonnes.
An amount of `520 crore towards production credit was released to Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank and Uttarakhand Gramin Bank which is 11 per cent over the previous year’s limit.
To benefit small farmers with technical inputs, cumulatively 42 projects have been sanctioned under Farmer’s Technology Transfer Fund of which 10 projects were completed in 2012-13 with a total grant assistance of `45.12 lakh for technical inputs for different activities like off season vegetable cultivation, mushroom cultivation, commercial floriculture/horticulture and use of Chyura (Indian butter tree) for various products which the farmer’s federation concerned is planning to patent.
A total of 508 farmers’ clubs were formed and a grant assistance of `31 lakh was released for establishing these clubs and maintaining those formed earlier.
In 2012-14 the bank will enhance financing of rural infrastructure projects like construction of schools, primary health centres, construction of warehouses, slope stabilization and disburse `500 crore.
The other thrust areas of NABARD include construction and accreditation of cold storages and rural godowns for enhanced storage capacity of foodgrains and issue of warehouse pledge receipts for crop loans by banks, development of a model village in each district, boosting dairy sector by exposing beneficiaries to best practices and working with State Government.
General manager PK Mishra, PRO Qamar Javed and other bank officials were also present on the occasion.