BHUBANESWAR: With the regional office of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) yet to sanction refinance support for short-term loans to farm sector, the State Government may not achieve its crop loan target for the current financial year.
Setting a target to advance crop loan of `12,000 crore in 2017-18 (for Kharif and Rabi), the Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB) had sought refinance support of `7,200 crore from Nabard to meet the short term credit need of the farmers.“Usually, Nabarad sanctions the short term refinance assistance to the State Cooperative Bank (SCB) in March. The national bank has convened a meeting of all the SCBs in Delhi on July 10. Possibly a decision will be taken on the refinance support to the States after the meeting,” said a senior officer of OSCB.
The State Government has fixed an ambitious target to extend short term credit of `22,000 crore to the farmers during the current financial year. The State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) has set a target of `10,300 crore for OSCB, the apex cooperative bank of the State, while the target for commercial banks operating in the State is `9,996 crore. Under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), crop loan sanctioned in favour of farmers before July 31 will be eligible to insurance claims.
Meanwhile, crop loan to the tune of `3,100 crore have been disbursed to farmers for kharif crops through the cooperative credit structures. The quantum of loan extended by commercial banks operating the in the State is not available with the Government.Further delay by Nabard in extending the refinance support may offset the crop loan lending plan of the Government, the sources said.
Around 70 per cent of the total crop loan in the State is given through the cooperative sector. OSCB disburses the loan through 2700 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) working under the 17 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB).
In 2016-17, `15,534.23 crore crop loan were disbursed in the State out of which `10,203 crore were provided by cooperative banks.