The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) released Rs 6,238.34 crore under various support facilities for the state in the last financial year (2012-13), against a committed Rs 5,320 crore. The achievement was despite shortfalls and poor performance of the State Cooperative Bank, which availed of only Rs 928 crore against a NABARD commitment of Rs 1,085 crore, NABARD Kerala region chief general manager R Amalorpavanathan told a press meet here on Friday.
Support from commercial banks, regional rural banks and the NGO sector propelled the NABARD to achieve an overall growth of 17 per cent. This is 22 per cent above the NABARD’s involvement in the state during the preceding financial year (2011-12).
The cooperative sector’s lag in making use of NABARD funds became clear with the Kerala State Co-operative and Agricultural Rural Development Bank (KSCARDB) availing of only Rs 682.42 crore, against a commitment of Rs 750 crore.
If the State Co-operative Bank suffered its eligibility on account of poor disbursement to Development Credit Banks (DCBs), the KSCARDB suffered owing to the inadequate borrowing power enabled by the State Government. Similarly, against the Rs 525-crore disbursement target under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), the state staggered with a poor implementation and availed of only Rs 407 crore.
For 2013-14, the NABARD is planning to deploy an overall amount of Rs 7,005.64 crore, which is 12.3 per cent above the level of achievement of last year and 32 per cent above the last year’s plan. Out of this, Rs 2,400 crore is for investment credit in agriculture and Rs 3,725 crore for crop loans. Again, Rs 800 crore will be earmarked to support infrastructure creation in rural areas.
The NABARD has been advocating the community-based participatory model of watershed development, which has been accepted as a successful model and is being adopted by various state governments for their own programmes. These programmes are being implemented in Kasaragod and Palakkad districts.