Tasked with the job of ensuring uninterrupted credit supply to the farming activities through co-op banks and RRBs, the Nabard has achieved a remarkable feat in the financial year 2021-22 by raising the stake to Rs 17.09 trillion.
Talking to media persons in Mumbai, Nabard Chairman GR Chintala revealed the RRBs and co-op banks have disbursed Rs 17.09 trillion worth of agriculture credit during 2021-22 against a target of Rs 16.5 trillion. The share of crop loans is about Rs 10 trillion and the remaining Rs 7 trillion has been disbursed for agri-infra and other long-term projects, stated the chairman.
Nabard also registered a growth in its asset size by 15.22 %, said Chintala adding its asset size has increased to Rs 7,57,905 as on March 31, 2022. The bank’s balance sheet has also grown, he added.
FE adds “The loan portfolio of the bank has increased to Rs 6,80,731 crore as of March 31, 2022, from Rs 6,03,000 crore as of March 31, 2021; registering a growth of 12.89%. The total disbursement during the fiscal stood at Rs 3,77,086 crore as against Rs 3,50,022 crore in the last fiscal, marking a growth of 7.73%. NABARD has reported an all-time high to refinance disbursement of Rs 2.68 trillion during the year 2021-22 as against a total refinance disbursement of Rs 2.23 trillion extended in the previous year.”
It bears recall that the co-op banks of the country draw their strength from Nabard. Its incumbent Chairman G R Chintala is frequently on trips meeting co-operators at ground zero. Chintala was recently at Krishna DCCB where he not only distributed prizes to successful co-op banks but also encouraged co-operators to be proactive in service to the farmers.
Earlier, Nabard in collaboration with Gujarat State Coop Bank conceived the idea of ‘Model Cooperative village’. The objective is to ensure that all financial needs and even many non-financial needs of every household in the model village are met through PACS. Union Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah liked the idea and launched the same recently in Gujarat.
It bears recalling that there are 33 state cooperative banks having a network of 2,072 branches across 33 states/UTs. There are 351 DCCBs having a network of 13,589 branches across 20 states/UTs. There are 95,995 PACCs covering more than 6 lakh villages and 13.2 crore are the members. There are 13 state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks having a network of 791 branches across 13 states.
Ever since Amit Shah has taken over as the Cooperation Minister, Nabard’s project of computerising PACS has gained momentum. For PACCs Computerisation, NABARD has introduced a new scheme under which grant support of up to Rs 5 crore will be provided to those state governments/ StCBs/DCCBs that are willing to provide a matching grant for the purpose.
NABARD has so far sanctioned many proposals for PACS computerisation in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. On loans, Chintala said the farmers get crop loans at a 7% of interest rate as the Centre subsidises 2% of interest. But those farmers who promptly repay the loan within the deadline get an additional rebate of 3%, he said.