The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 23 per cent growth in NABARD credit to State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 06, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

23 per cent growth in NABARD credit to State

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 5. There has been a 23 per cent rise in NABARD credit support in the State totalling Rs. 3,480.93 crores in the financial year 2004-05.

Of this amount, almost half (Rs. 1,856 crores) was sanctioned to cooperative banks and regional rural banks to support crop loans and other short term credits for seasonal agricultural operations. The rest was disbursed as loans to the State Government under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (Rs. 656 crores) and as credit to banks to finance long-term private investment credit (Rs. 968.79 crores).

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the NABARD Chief General Manager, J. R. Sarangal, said their support for long-term private investments had increased by 60 per cent while crop loans had gone up by 21 per cent.

State on top

Andhra Pradesh continued to dominate the micro-finance scenario in the country with a total credit disbursement of Rs. 1,000 crores to about 2.5 lakh Self Help Groups. Of this amount, NABARD refinanced Rs. 438 crores, he said. Finance per group was expected to touch Rs. 40,000 in 2004-05, an increase of about Rs. 8,000 over the past year.

He said all crop loans were being given through Kisan credit cards. Out of a total 1.6 crore families in the State, 62 lakh Kisan credit cards had been issued. He said that the focus this year would be on tenants and small and marginal farmers.

Land project

Under the RIDF, Rs. 236 crores had been given for the Comprehensive Land Development Project in 856 mandals to make the lands assigned to SCs and STs more productive. NABARD also provided Rs. 77 crores for 574 rural godowns creating 24 lakh tonnes capacity. Thirtyseven cold storages were also built with a capacity of 1.88 lakh tonnes.

NABARD has projected a total credit potential of Rs. 29,423 crores for the State in 2005-06. This represents a 30 per cent growth in credit potential including agriculture and allied activities, non-farm sector and other priority sectors.

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