Guwahati: Chief general manager of the Assam regional office of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) Rajashree K. Baruah has called for a climate-resilient approach to agriculture.

Speaking at the launch of the credit plan of Rs 21,612 crore for Assam on Friday, the official said the theme of the project for the 2018-19 is per drop more crop.

"With this theme we have given emphasis to the significant relationship between water, climate and agriculture. Climate change phenomena is a concept we can no longer ignore and the need for a climate resilient approach to agriculture is the need of the hour," she said.

The status focus paper presents an aggregation of the district-level projections of credit flow made in the annual potential linked plans. Based on the projections, the state-level bankers' committee (the apex organisation of bankers) will prepare the state annual credit plan.

Baruah said this time the project plan shows an increase of 11 per cent over the Rs 19,441 crore estimated during 2017-18. The plan was prepared after a district-level survey carried out by Nabard.

For this financial year, the plan suggests Rs 8,390 crore for crop production, Rs 4,328 crore towards agri-allied activities, Rs 819 crore for agri-infrastructure, Rs 331 crore for ancillary activities, Rs 4,622 crore for micro, small and medium enterprises sector, Rs 1,853 crore for education and housing sector and Rs 1,269 crore for export credit, renewable energy, social infrastructure and others where farm credit, agricultural infrastructure and ancillary activities, including the agro and food processing sector covers 64 per cent of the plan.

Nabard on Friday also released the state area development scheme for 2018-19 for the dairy, piggery, goatery, fishery and weaving sectors. Under the scheme, it has prepared 66 area development schemes, two for each of the 33 districts of Assam with a total banking plan of Rs 802 crore. For the dairy sector the highest amount has been projected in Biswanath district, Jorhat district for the piggery sector, Tinsukia district for the goatery sector, Barpeta district in the fishery sector, and Dibrugarh district in the weaving sector.

Participating in the programme, Assam agriculture minister Atul Bora said, "The project plan is the guideline for the rural development of the state. Our government will confer all kinds of support to Nabard and allied departments to execute the plan. Rural development is a priority of the BJP government. We will never compromise in the allocation of funds along with other help."