NABARD prepares credit plan worth Rs 1.06 lakh crore for Tamil Nadu

Chennai:
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has prepared a credit plan worth Rs 1.06 lakh crore focusing on crop production maintenance and marketing, term loan for agricultural activities, non farm sector and other priority sectors.

Speaking during a State Credit Seminar, chief general manager of NABARD Lalitha Venkatesan said this is 37 per cent more than the previous year. Last year the credit plan was 77,803 crore.

Venkatesan said this year an attempt has been made in the Potential Linked Credit Plans prepared for all the districts to identify critical infrastructure projects under each sector that could be taken by the state to improve agricultural productivity and flow of credit to agriculture.

She said the major sectors include crop production, maintenance and marketing (Rs 39,135.33 crore), term loan for agricultural activities (Rs 28,063.62 crore), non-farm sector (Rs 20,002.64 crore) and priority sector (Rs 19,208.26 crore).

Under term credit for agriculture, the credit potential has been estimated at Rs 6506.09 crore for farm mechanization, Rs 5845.28 crore for animal husbandry, Rs 4479.88 crore for plantation and horticulture, Rs 3009.28 crore for storage godowns and market yards, Rs 2863.66 crore for land development and  Rs 2080.52 crore for water resources. The plan document estimates the credit potential for the priority sector to touch Rs 149231.37 crore at the end of the 12^th Five Year Plan.

Speaking on the occasion, Finance secretary K Shanmugam stressed the need to focus on infrastructure for increasing productivity in agriculture sector and suggested surplus areas could be directed to cash crops, without sacrificing food production. He said the thrust would be on crop diversification comprising high value horticulture and commercial crops, besides focusing on rainfed development, water use efficiency, recharge of groundwater and conservation of soil. He stressed the need to concentrate on reducing the gap between farm gate and retail price and pave the way for farmers reaping major share of consumer’s price for perishable products.   “A paradigm shift is required in achieving higher productivity per unit of land, higher productivity of labour and higher productivity of investment,” he said.

“Tamil Nadu’s land under cultivation might have shrunk but with technology in place, we will be able to produce surplus food grains, surplus vegetables and surplus fruits, which can be exported to other countries and other states as there is so much yield gap today,” he added.