Bhubaneswar: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has projected an overall credit potential under priority sector at Rs 2,00,608 crore for 2024-25 in the State Focus Paper for Odisha.
In the seminar chaired by Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Anu Garg, NABARD CGM Sudhanshu K K Mishra emphasised on concerted efforts required for achieving the set target for the current year and increase the credit flow to priority sector in the state.
While stressing the importance of resilient agriculture in shaping the future of agri economy in Odisha, he also highlighted the activities taken up by NABARD like canopy management in collaboration with Central Horticulture Experiment Station (CHES) wherein farmers from all over the state were trained for developing 100 nurseries, watersheds and WADIs.
Garg congratulated NABARD for completing the credit planning exercise on time and stated that it has been a major partner of the state government in implementation, creation of rural infrastructures and scaling up their operation. She advised the stakeholders to ensure that efforts are made to achieve the potential plan that has been presented by NABARD.
Principal Secretary, Finance, Vishal Kumar Dev said that though credit flow from banks to the priority sector in Odisha has been good so far, there is a need for urgent improvement and attention as the credit plan for the state should be 40% of GSDP which is around Rs 3.50 lakh crore but it has been put at Rs 2 lakh crore for 2024-25. He called for removal of regional disparity in the state in terms of financial services and coordinated efforts for paving way for sustained development. He asked all banks to achieve the set targets and increase the bar, focusing on agriculture and MSME. He also advised banks and line departments to introspect, revisit the strategies required for upscaling the credit flow and for removing the operational impediments in the growth of credit to the priority sector.
Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Arabinda Kumar Padhee briefed the house on the focus areas of the the government, which include climate resilient programmes, nutrition security, inclusive development, farm mechanization, etc.
Regional Director, RBI, S P Mohanty stressed the importance of achieving the projections for better credit dispensation and advised banks to expand their horizon. He also emphasised on the need for aggressive penetration of banking services into the unbanked areas.
Convenor, SLBC, Goutam Patra deliberated on the usefulness of credit planning document and urged bankers to collaborate with various stakeholders to achieve the target set under Annual Credit Plan (ACP) 2023-24.
A presentation on a pilot project for development of dairy sector in Ganjam district was also made. The project is expected to benefit 2000 dairy farmers in the district in addition to enhancing the milk production up to 25,000 litre per day.
The participants were also apprised about the new initiative undertaken by NABARD in preparation of a bankable scheme of Harnessing the Potential of Horticulture Sector in Odisha through Nursery Development. 100 agri-preneurs from various districts of Odisha will be covered under the scheme.
Self Help Groups, government institutions, NGOs and community-based organizations and achievers in rural area were also felicitated on the occasion.
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