Bhubaneswar: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has disbursed ₹31,786 crore in Odisha during the financial year ended 31 March 2022, recording an increase of 40% over the preceding year 2020-21. The financial support comprised of ₹14,077 crore to banks for lending towards crop loans as well as term loans in the State and ₹3031 crore to the State Government under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for creating infrastructure in rural areas.
NABARD has disbursed ₹14,485 crore for supporting paddy procurement operations in the State during the year 2021-22. To aid the economic revival and address liquidity problems faced by banks due to the pandemic, NABARD has also provided special liquidity facility (SLF) of ₹1250 crore.
During FY-2021-22, NABARD sanctioned fresh RIDF assistance of ₹4013 crore for construction of 243 new rural roads, 263 bridges, 1 medium irrigation project, 9836 minor irrigation projects, 6 flood protection and 9 rural drinking water projects in the State. The sanction in the year 2021-22 was higher by 24% as compared to that of 2020-21. The Drinking Water projects are expected to provide clean and safe drinking water to 17 lakh rural population across the State. The support under RIDF to Odisha is the highest in the country.
NABARD extended grant assistance of ₹70 crore to support various promotional initiatives during FY 2021-22. Farm sector development initiatives such as Tribal Development, Watershed Development, Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO), Climate Change and Promotion of Rural Innovations, etc. aiming at developing and demonstrating scalable models suiting the local conditions.
NABARD is implementing 69 tribal development projects supporting horticulture-based livelihoods in 46000 acres benefitting more than 50000 tribal families in 24 districts of Odisha, at present. During FY-2021-22, six new WADI projects and five new watershed projects were sanctioned involving a commitment of ₹53.88 crore.
So far, NABARD has promoted 325 FPOs, which are benefitting about 1.30 lakh farmers. In order to give a fillip to the movement of FPOs in the State, NABARD conducted a month-long campaign called “FPO Abhiyan”.
Promotional support from NABARD for Rural non-farm sector included the formation of five new Off-Farm Producer Organizations (OFPOs) in the area of Handloom and Handicrafts development. While FPOs support the requirements of farmers, OFPOs are being formed for the integrated development of rural craftsmen and weavers. Further, skill training and livelihood promotion support to SHG women were continued. In order to improve marketing avenues for rural products, NABARD supported infrastructure in form of Rural Haats, sales outlets for SHG products, Gramin Dukaan, etc, apart from support for participation in exhibitions.
Grant support of ₹34.14 crore was provided to banks from Financial Inclusion Fund to expand the banking touchpoints in rural areas and for creating awareness of financial inclusion.
With a view to enhancing the credit flow to agriculture and other rural sectors, NABARD has a projected potential of ₹1,34,665crorefor priority sector lending by banks in the current financial year 2022-23, including ₹52,050 crore under Agriculture.
In all, it was a very eventful year for the developmental activities of NABARD in Odisha, despite the impact of COVID. NABARD in the current year is committed to increasing its support to the State Government for the creation of more rural infrastructure and shall focus on Integrated Development of Rural Livelihoods on a large scale in Odisha.
