PUNE, Apr 28: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) extended a record support of Rs 6,023.18 crore for agriculture and rural development in Maharashtra during 2011-12, up 71 per cent from Rs 3,532.49 in the previous year.
The refinance institution provided Rs 4,035.50 crore support to cooperative banks and gramin banks in the state to disburse crop loans to farmers, a growth of 79 per cent from previous year (2010-11), according to a report released by the nodal agriculture bank’s Maharashtra office here.
A sum of Rs 1,777.84 crore was advanced by Nabard to support creation of rural infrastructure like roads and bridges, irrigation projects and drinking water, besides new projects like rural warehousing, waste water management, public health and anganwadi centres. This was 58 per cent more than in 2010-11.
“For the first time, a special allocation of Rs 2,000 crore was made to Nabard for warehouse financing under RIDF by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget for 2011-12. At the national level, NABARD achieved 100 per cent utilisation of the fund during the year, by sanctioning warehousing projects to the state governments and private sector agencies through banks,” it said.
Maharashtra stood at the top amongst all the states with a sanction of loan of Rs 460 crore (31 per cent of all India total) under RIDF, it added.
“NABARD also provided support through various banks to the extent of Rs 50 crore under this Special Warehousing Refinance Scheme. This is expected to create around 7.65 lakh tonnes of warehousing infrastructure, particularly for storage of food grains in the state and would thereby help farmers avoid distress sale of their produce,” the report, released by Chief General Manager M V Ashok said. (PTI)
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