Bhagalpur, Aug. 23: The Bihar regional office of the National Agriculture Bank for Rural and Agriculture Development (Nabard) has sanctioned projects worth Rs 1.37 crore to mitigate the hardship of the farmers, caused by drought, in this part of the state.

The project looks to propagate the system of rice intensification (Sri) amongst 4,480 farmers of Bhagalpur and Banka districts.

Eight agencies — Indian Rural Association, Needs, Disha Gramin Vikash Manch, Freedom Mission, Utkrist Sewa Sansthan, Aseed, Gramodhar SSSVM and Sant Ravidas Kalyan Samiti — will partner Nabard in implementing the programme in nine blocks of Bhagalpur and Banka, said Nabard district deputy manager Nabin Roy.

Roy said the Sri project is likely to boost the farm production of the farmers of the region as they generally grow a late variety of rice. The farmers’ production would have dwindled because of lack of rainfall during July-August.

The Nabard project was rolled out through a capacity building workshop held at Bhagalpur recently. Sri experts from Needs and Swadesh Banerjee, a farmer from Basudevpur village under Amarpur block of Banka, pointed out several tactics for the farmers.

Needs is a state-level resource agency for Sri in Jharkhand.

Field-level workers and project co-ordinators, along with some of the farmers, also attended the workshop. The experts, with the help of video films, charts and pamphlets, discussed Sri at length. The tools required for sowing, weeding and marketing was also displayed in the workshop.

Roy said: “At present, all the farmers have prepared their own nurseries. Within five days, the paddy transplantation would be completed as well. This project has given us as an opportunity to extend our programmes to the farmers directly.”

He added that the project monitoring committee has also decided to link all the farmers in 25 per cent of the village to a Sri farmers’ club.

This is to take the newfound bond between Nabard and the farmers to a newer level of initiatives that shall be leading to the transfer of technologies directly to the farmers.

“Efforts are also being made to provide cover to the Sri farmers through crop insurance. We are also motivating farmers who do not have bank accounts to open one each for their own benefit. All these are likely to help us in the task of financial inclusion,” Roy said.