Bhubaneswar, January 25: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has assessed a total credit requirement of Rs 1,10,735 crore for Odisha for the year 2021-22 with greater emphasis on crop diversification, animal husbandry and fishery sector apart from greater thrust on enhancing credit flow to Self Help Groups (SHGs), informed NABARAD Chief General Manager (CGM) C Udayabhaskar.
In the State Credit Seminar for 2021-22 conducted on Monday, the State Focus Paper for Odisha was released by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.
“The Credit projections for Odisha for 2021-22 is Rs 1,10,735 crore which is based on the potential assessed under various sectors and sub sectors in all the agro climatic zones of the State,” said the CGM.
Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari congratulated the banking sector in advance towards achieving the priority sector lending target of Rs 1,00,000 crore for the Financial Year 2020-21.
As per the State Focus Paper, the projected credit flow to Priority sector for the year 2021-22 has been enhanced by 22.5% from the year 2020-21. The projection for credit to agriculture sector was pegged at Rs 46,460.40 crore which is 7.34% more than the projection of the year 2020-21.
Keeping in view high credit growth in MSME sector with a potential generate rapid employment in the post-Covid periods a projection of 41867.10 crore for credit to MSME sector has been made with a growth of 37.46% over the previous year.
In order to improve flow of credit to SHG, the projection for loan under the category has been kept at 6295.77 crore which will also increase the average loan for SHG.
The broad strategy for realizing the potential for credit was also discussed with following highlights.
Newly developed irrigated areas need to have plans for crop diversification, water saving mechanism and special credit plans to augment the credit flow.
Allied sectors like commercial dairying, goatery, fisheries and horticulture need to be developed in clusters to optimize availability of various support services and better market linkage.
The seminar was addressed by Development Commissioner PK Jena, Agriculture Production Commissioner RK Sharma, Finance Department Principal Secretary AK Meena, RBI Regional Director MK Mall and SLBC Convener A Jena.
The meeting was attended by controlling Heads of Banks and senior functionaries from the State Government. For the first time the seminar was attended by the District Collectors, LDMs and DDMs of NABARD in virtual mode.
During the programme, NABARD felicitated best performing farmers from Krishak Sammridhi Yojana – a project for doubling of farmers’ income – Farmers Producers Organisation and members of SHGs apart from two best tribal farmers who have excelled in Wadi project (Orchard Development) promoted by it.
