The National Bank for Agriculture and rural Development (NABARD) has assessed the credit potential for the district for 2016-17 to be Rs. 14,9762 crore, which is 21 per cent more than the projections for the current year.
District Collector Archana Patnaik released the potential-linked credit plan here on Saturday.
R. Inigo Arul Selvan, district development manager of NABARD, said that of the total outlay, 40 per cent has been earmarked for the agriculture sector including farm credit, agriculture infrastructure, and ancillary activities. And the amount projected for the MSME sector is 45 per cent of the total outlay. Export credit, housing and education are the other main areas in the credit outlay. He said that the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation is in the process of creating additional capacity of around 3500 tonnes to augment the storage infrastructure in the district for food grains.
The facilities will come up with financial assistance from NABARD.
Similar infrastructure has been created in the regulated markets and select primary agricultural credit societies.
According to a press release, speaking at the release function, the Collector stressed on the need for increased credit flow to agriculture and MSME sectors.
In the current year, the bankers have been advised to support about 1,500 joint liability groups of small and marginal farmers.
Sanjeev Singha, general manager of Reserve Bank of India, said the RBI has recently modified the priority sector guidelines, with targets to banks for lending to small and marginal farmers and micro enterprises. K. Krishnamoorthy, lead district manager, said the banks have been advised to increase lending to micro enterprises in line with RBI’s revised guidelines.
