The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has said that there were no instances of suicide by farmers in areas where the bank supported watershed programmes.
Addressing a press conference highlighting the performance of Andhra Pradesh regional office of the bank on Monday, its chief general manager Hairsh Java said the bank released a grant of Rs.175 crore for 166 watershed projects in AP last year and 154 of them were completed.
As a special drive to support the farmers of nine distressed and suicide prone districts of AP, the regional office conducted 58 customised financial literacy awareness camps. As many as 54 Farmer Producer Organisations were sanctioned grant assistance to provide end-to-end solution from farm production to marketing of agriculture produce.
The office is implementing a climate change project for development and restoration of mangrove plantation in the coastal area and provide livelihood for fishermen in three villages of Krishna district with a total financial assistance of Rs.3.81 crore. The total business of Nabard in the State in 2015-16 was Rs.8,301 crore, which was a 22 per cent growth over previous year. About 3.76 lakh self-help groups were provided bank credit.
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