By Tricitynews
Chandigarh 19th September:- NABARD, the apex development
financial institution catering to agriculture and rural development has been
providing credit support for infrastructure development including long term
loans to FIs for capital formation in rural areas, short term agriculture loans
to FIs as also grant support under
financial inclusion, farmers/ artisans collectives viz Farmers Producers
Organisations, SHGs, JLGs etc. During 2017-18, NABARD Punjab Office had disbursed
Rs. 9289
crore to various partners for the Agriculture and rural development in Punjab,
as informed by J P S Bindra, CGM, NABARD Punjab Regional Office while
addressing the Press on 19September 2019. He further informed that this year
NABARD Punjab Regional Office plan to cross the threshold of Rs. 11000
crorefinancial assistance to various stakeholders including the State
Govt.
While
interacting with media at NABARD chandigarh office, J P S Bindra said that rural
Infrastructure development being the top priority of the State, NABARD has
supported various infrastructure projects in the State. In previous year, NABARD provided assistance
of Rs.458.24
crore to State Government under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)
for creation of critical rural infrastructure facilities with cumulative
assistance of Rs. 9026 crore since inception till
31st March 2019. The cumulative disbursement under RIDF in Punjab
has been to the tune of Rs. 6601 Crore till 31st
March 2019. Besides this, NABARD also sanctioned term loan of Rs.27.13 crore to Punjab Agro
Industries Corporation Limited (PAICL) for the development of Mega Food Park at
Ludhiana and Rs. 317.4 crore under NABARD
Infrastructure Development Fund to PSTCL for rejuvenating transmission
infrastructure across Punjab during previous years. Under Warehouse
Infrastructure Fund NABARD has sanctioned Rs.210 crore to PUNGRAIN for
creation of 5 Lakh MT SILOs and Rs.255 crore to PSWC for creation of
new godowns as well as rejuvenation and modernization of existing storage
infrastructure across Punjab.
He shared that in the state, concentration of heavy metals is
increasing leading to high occurrences of cancer. NABARD have sanctioned a
project under RIDF for establishment of New State Cancer Institute (SCI)
Nuclear Medicine Block and Radiotherapy Block at Govt Medical College, Amritsar
and Tertiary Cancer Care Hospital at Fazilka with credit support of Rs.53.50 crores. Further, as preventive
measures a project of installments of 555 Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in 546
villages of 17 districts has also been sanctioned with loan of Rs.76.68 crores.
In the state four major irrigation projects for
rehabilitation and increasing the capacity of the major canals for increasing
irrigation intensity in the state with TFO of Rs.2761.02
crores with NABARD financial assistance of Rs. 1455.23
crores. Under dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund. One of the project work
highlighting is Shahpurkandi dam.
J
P S Bindra informed that State Govt. for utilization of treated water from
sewerage treatment plants for irrigation in 13 districts of Punjab with credit
support of Rs. 88.95 crore has been provided to
the state Government under RIDF.
To
boost capital formation in agriculture, NABARD provided refinance of Rs.3749.41
crore to various banks during 2018-19 which shall be increased to Rs. 4000
in the current year. NABARD also proposes to increase the support under short
term Refinance during the current year which was Rs. 4506.85
crore during previous year for facilitating disbursement of crop loans at
concessional interest rate to the farmers by banks. To encourage
diversification of crops, NABARD has prepared Area Development Plans of Rs. 1918
crore for 2018-19 to promote dairy, vegetable cultivation, apiculture, mushroom
growing which will supplement farmers’ income.
Besides,
infrastructure support to state Government and credit support to financial
institutions, NABARD has taken up various development initiatives in the state
to educate/ train the rural population.
J
P S Bindra indicated that Paddy Straw burning is a big issue in Punjab which results not only in emission of harmful gases
like methane, CO2 and N2O, but also affects agriculture
productivity adversely besides also affecting human and livestocks. A
beginning was made by NABARD last year under the aegis of NAFCC, by running an
awareness campaign on Crop Residue Management across all 22 districts of the
state, covering 11,000 paddy growing villages in 4,000 clusters. The results
have been encouraging with an overall 10% decline in the burnt up area under
paddy. This year too, the campaign has been launched with the help of our
stakeholders to encourage the farmers in abstaining from paddy stubble burning
and disseminating information about the available alternatives. Besides this,
fund has also provided to Department of Agriculture, Punjab for crop
diversification by developing maize clusters in 05 districts where paddy is
grown. This year 20 new maize clusters are being promoted in 07 districts. Another
project under NAFCC is being supported by NABARD through PSCST for Climate
Resilient Livestock in a 05 year time span in 03 districts viz Ludhiana,
Bhatinda and Tarn Taran for a total outlay of Rs. 17.39 cr.
To address the
issue of input supply, crop productivity and marketing, NABARD
has initiated the process of bringing the farmers together as Farmers Producer
Organisation which is a registered entity. In Punjab, we have, so far, promoted
91 FPOs in 19 districts across the State. These FPOs have brought visible
change in collectivising the operations of farming of small and marginal
farmers. NABARD has also digitized these FPOs which will help them in credit
linkage. NABARD will assist eligible FPOs to get credit from banks as also
through NABKISAN Finance Ltd, subsidiary of NABARD, the main objective of which is to provide credit for
promotion, expansion and commercialization of enterprises engaged in
agriculture, allied and rural non-farm activities.
We had earlier launched Water
Campaign in 2017 (JalJeevanHai) in 5000 villages of the State. To take
this further, an Integrated Water Management Scheme (IWMS) has been formulated
by NABARD to be implemented in two districts namely Ferozpur and Moga,
which are identified as Aspirational Districts by GoI where a cluster of 5
villages with an area of about 500 ha in each district will be covered to
undertake various soil and water conservation measures, convergence of other
schemes and funds.
