NABARD Extends Financial Support of Rs 9162 Crore to WB
Kolkata : National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has extended financial support of Rs. 9162 crore to the West Bengal during the year 2020-21 for the development of agriculture and allied sectors despite challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This includes Rs. 1269.27 crore loan to the State Govt. for various rural infrastructure development, Rs. 3842.32 crore long-term refinance assistance to Rural Financial Institutions (RFIs) for financing investment activities in agriculture & allied sectors and MSME sector and Rs. 3757.50 crore short-term refinance to RFIs for supporting production and marketing activities of farmers and rural artisans, Dr A R Khan, Chief General Manager, NABARD, West Bengal Regional Office on Thursday said.
For the year 2021-22, NABARD has estimated a credit potential of Rs. 2.21 lakh crores for West Bengal to be disbursed by various banks for the priority sector activities, Dr Khan said.
He stated that during 2020-21, the Bank sanctioned 2284 new rural infrastructure projects consisting of rural roads, rural bridges, medium and minor irrigation projects, flood protection projects, solar power plants and Anganwadi Centres with RIDF loan support of Rs.1659.62 crore
to the Government of West Bengal.
On implementation, these projects will lead to the creation of 857 km length of rural roads and 129-metre long rural bridges benefitting 949 villages and favourably impacting about 70 lakh people in the rural areas.
The 1155 irrigation projects will provide assured irrigation facilities to 30946 ha of agricultural land benefitting 2.19 lakh farmers in 1304 villages of the state.
The 22 Flood Protection projects would help in protecting about 17354 ha of land in 70 villages and bringing relief to 6.98 lakh people in flood-prone areas, Dr Khan said.
He said two solar power plants sanctioned under RIDF would generate 20 MW power for lighting 06 villages and providing electrical facilities to 29,000 villagers. Similarly, 966 Anganwadi Centres will benefit about 61,000 women of 966 villages, in providing facilities for their children.
According to the CGM, to promote irrigation efficiency in the water-scarce areas, NABARD sanctioned a Micro Irrigation project to the Govt. of West Bengal with loan support of Rs.276.55 crore under its Micro Irrigation Fund. This will bring 74,592 ha area under micro-irrigation
coverage spread over 10 districts of the State.
Intending to address the liquidity constraints faced by the RFIs due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, NABARD provided a Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) of Rs.720 crore to Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs in the State under an economic stimulus package to enable them to fully meet the crop loan requirements of small and marginal farmers, Dr Khan stated.
He said under the Long-term refinance facility, NABARD extended concessional refinance support of Rs. 2403.33 crore to Commercial Banks followed by Rs.701.0 crore to the Cooperative Banks, Rs. 157 crore to Regional Rural Banks and Rs. 581 crore to NBFC/NBFC-MFIs in the
State.
Similarly, under the Short-term facility, the Bank disbursed a refinance of Rs. 3757.50 crore to the Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs for lending towards crop production and other seasonal agriculture operations. This includes a Special Liquidity Facility of Rs. 720 crore extended to these banks to meet the crop loan requirement of small & marginal farmers during Covid-19
pandemic.
Further, to ease the liquidity crunch in the sector, a Special Liquidity Facility of Rs. 450 crore was extended to NBFC/NBFC-MFIs/smaller mFIs in the State, which helped around 1,59,800 JLG members in rural and semi-urban areas of the State to avail credit facility for continuing
their economic activities, Dr Khan said.
Source: uniindia
