Bhubaneswar, Jan. 8: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has launched a state credit plan for Orissa with an outlay of Rs 25,019 crore.
Out of this, agricultural sector has been allotted the maximum amount of Rs 12,850 crore which is 51 per cent of the total plan. Of this, Rs 4,046 crore would be disbursed as term loan for agricultural and allied activities and Rs 8,804 crore as crop loan.
Launching the credit plan, finance minister Prafulla Ghadai said: “Nabard has provided cumulative financial assistance of Rs 5,433 crore under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for 1,16,450 projects, out of which 8,558 projects have been completed and many more are in the implementation stage. The completed projects created irrigation potential for 4.01 lakh hectare providing connectivity to 897 villages and access to 1,460 marketing centres.”
Nabard officials informed that the non-farm sector, which has huge potential to generate livelihood opportunities particularly in rural areas has been allotted Rs 2,602 crore.
Orissa is one of the leading states in respect of self-help group bank linkage programme. There are about five lakh self-help groups (SHGs) in the state. Keeping this in view, Rs 2,662 core credit flow has been earmarked for financing SHGs by banks.
Chief secretary Bijay Patnaik said: “Efforts are required to increase the growth of agricultural sector and sustain momentum of credit flow to agriculture in the state. The state had recorded an annual average GDP growth of 8.73 per cent during first three years during 11th Five Year Plan.”
The State focus paper (SFP) 2011-12 prepared by Nabard presents a comprehensive picture of potential available in the state for development of various sectors of rural economy. It also highlights critical infrastructure gaps, linkage and support services required from line departments of the state government to facilitate credit flow to various potential sectors as envisaged in SFP. The projection of credit flow for 2011-12 entails an increase of 48 per cent over annual credit plan of 2010-11 at Rs 16,915 crore.
