The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Rural banks ready to increase credit to farm sector

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Rural banks ready to increase credit to farm sector

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JUNE 27. The regional rural banks at a meeting here agreed to increase credit for agriculture by 40 per cent, as desired by the Central Government, and to provide necessary relief to distressed farmers.

Presiding over the meeting held at the Dr. M. Channa Reddy Institute of Human Resource Development on Saturday, the chairperson of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ranjana Kumar, said it would not be difficult for RRBs to achieve higher credit flow, considering the large number of branches in rural areas. She advised RRBs to treat agricultural financing as a viable proposition and increase the coverage under term loans.

According to a press release issued by NABARD, Ms. Ranjana Kumar felt that RRBs were lending below their potential and should at least achieve 15 to 20 per cent share of the total agricultural credit in the country, by bringing into the banking fold those farmers hitherto not covered by institutional credit. She advised bankers to assess the realistic credit needs of farmers and make available timely and adequate credit so that the goal of enhancing agricultural credit would be realised.

The meeting discussed the scale of finance and operational issues on farm credit. It said NABARD should take proactive steps to make credit more farmer-friendly. The RRBs called for intervention by the Government to make agriculture a profitable business. The release said NABARD assured RRBs to provide support on training and preparation of bankable schemes of potential activities wherever required.

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