Union Finance Minister Smt N Sitharaman chaired a detailed review of NABARD in the presence of Chairman and other senior officials of the Ministry. While taking note of the significant initiatives of NABARD in recent years, she advised NABARD to work towards ensuring efficiency and outcomes at the ground level with improvement in rural income as top priority, reads a tweet from the Ministry.
The minister directed NABARD to facilitate the aggregation of organic producers by Farmer Producer Organisations FPOs, with a focus on North-East states.
With production and marketing of Shree Anna as a national priority in the ongoing International Year of Millets, Sitharaman directed NABARD to encourage farmers to enhance the area covered under Millets, and to protect the returns of farmers who are already growing millets.
The Finance Minister emphasised on concerted efforts to sensitize farmers to shift towards more remunerative but less water-guzzling crops, especially millets, pulses and oilseeds. The Minister said that improving the digital capabilities of Rural Financial Institutions, including RRBs, be facilitated on priority for augmenting meaningful Financial Inclusion.
The Union Finance Minister advised NABARD to take steps to augment Rural Credit by correcting regional imbalances for better productivity in rural areas including in the non-farm sector.
In reference to various measures taken by NABARD in the aftermath of the Finance Minister’s visit to various States to drive development and Financial Inclusion, the Chairman apprised the Finance Minister about the development package of Rs 25,991 crore for Infra development of FPOs, SHGs, off-farm development, etc for Jammu and Kashmir.
He also informed the FM about the enhanced RIDF allocation for 2022-23 from Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,400 crore and pointed out about recapitalisation of 3 DCCBs – Rs 366.93 crore, which has been released for Jammu and Kashmir.
For Nagaland, the NABARD chairman apprised the FM about the saturation of all Government schemes and also about 256 credit outreach camps which were organised in the state by the banks where 38,370 loans have been sanctioned.
For the state of Karnataka, the NABARD chairman told the FM that RIDF support of Rs 25 crore has been approved for UAS, Raichur of Millet Value Chair Park.