NABARD sanctions over Rs 1900 cr to provide supplemental income to Punjab farmers

Chandigarh, February 16: In a bid to provide supplemental income to the farmers of Punjab, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Thursday announced area development plans worth Rs 1,918 crore for the state.

 

NABARD Chief General Manager (Punjab), Deepak Kumar said, "We have prepared area development plans to the tune of Rs 1,918 crore only for Punjab." While addressing the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) meeting in Chandigarh, Deepak Kumar said, Under this plan, the activities like dairy, vegetable cultivation, beekeeping, mushroom growing will be promoted in order to provide income to farmers at the sustainable basis."

On this occasion, NABARD Chief General Manager also raised concerns over the decreasing investment credit in Punjab and urged all the banks to focus on the area. He also blamed the lack of information among farmers and lack of coordination among government departments and banks for the decline in the investment credit growth.

He said, "The investment credit growth in Punjab went down from 37 percent in 2013-14 to 18 percent in 2016-17 while the overall investment credit growth in India has gone up from 25 to 35 percent." "It indicates that banks in our state are not giving adequate attention towards agriculture term lending. Around 32 percent of the total agriculture lending should be for investment credit," Deepak Kumar concluded.