The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is seriously mulling a proposal to provide Credit Plus services through the Farmers’ Clubs. Nabard regional office chief general manager Venkatesh Tagat said North Karnataka offers ample scope for construction of rural godowns and the banks should hold talks with farmers and explore the possibility of godown construction especially in the chilly growing belt.

Addressing the farmers during an interaction session organised at Neeralakatti village in Dharwad taluk recently, he said refinance facility from Nabard would be available for the purpose with subsidy of up to 25 per cent of the project cost. Likewise, Nabard was also extending subsidy for units producing organic manure. Villages covered 100 per cent under solar energy units, would get a special package from Nabard, he revealed.

The CGM stated that Nabard was keenly watching the flow of credit to agriculture and rural development. “Monetary assistance alone is not the criterion for achieving true progress. It is essential to provide information and technology to the farmers,” he said and felt that concentration of lending activities to the crop loan segment was depriving investment credit to take off as envisaged. He called upon banks to give equal importance to advances under investment credit. Proper utilisation of loan amount, information on technological advancement, market trends, value addition are some of the topics that came up for discussion at the session.

The forum provided many answers to the queries raised by farmers.

Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank chairman K P Muralidharan noted that many farmers are very innovative and that new ideas should be shared with others. “The Farmers Club is the most suitable medium for such exchange of ideas. KVGB has floated 516 Farmers Clubs in its area of operation. For dissemination of information, the bank plans to donate computers to three best clubs soon” he declared.

The Kannada edition of Leisa India, a magazine devoted to farm news in its entirety, was released on the day.

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Summer Placement Scheme – 2010-11 The Summer Internship Programme of NABARD provides access and opportunity to students for studying areas of core competence of NABARD i.e. rural development, multi-disciplinary projects, rural banking, institutional development etc. The objective of the Scheme is to assign tasks/projects useful and relevant to NABARD’s vision and mission statements, to talented students with good academic background. The selection of the sponsoring institutes would be: Agricultural Universities or Management Institutes connected with academic, research and development activities in areas of agriculture, agribusiness, rural development and allied activities. Institutes/universities of repute offering courses in law and post graduate courses in Economics. The selection of the students could be made either through campus visits by a selection committee in consultation with the institutions being visited or by short listing / interviews on the basis of applications received at the Head Office/Regional Office. The criteria and procedure for selection of the students would be as under: Postgraduate students pursuing courses in Agricultural Science, Economics, Development Studies and Management with good academic background. Based on the bio-data, eligible students would be short listed for interview. The Selection Committee will look into aptitude and interest of the students. Focus will be made on selecting themes in economics, banking, agriculture and rural development relevant to NABARD. Topics which are of national/ core interest i.e. financial inclusion, carbon trading, natural resource management, climate change and environment issues, revitalisation of cooperative banks and alternative credit delivery system through micro-credit will also be considered for the study . The financial benefits approved for implementation of the scheme are as under: The selected students will be paid a consolidated stipend of Rs.8,000/- per month during the entire period of the assignment. Field visit allowance of Rs.500/- per day inclusive of all expenses towards lodging, boarding, local conveyance etc. during the actual period of field visit subject to a maximum of 30 days. The travel expenses by AC III tier/Bus fare for joining at Regional office and for the field visit and return is to be reimbursed to the student on actual basis. Wherever AC III tier is not available, AC II tier may be permitted. The monetary benefits such as stipend, field allowance will be released to the students on satisfactory completion of the projects. The selected students will have to give an undertaking to NABARD to the effect that he/she will have no right/claim on the report submitted by him/her to the Bank after completion of the assignment except submission to his/her university/institute and the Bank shall be free to use the same in the manner considered appropriate by it. The students should also give a declaration that he/she will maintain complete secrecy and shall not use for any other purpose any information of confidential nature that might come to his/her knowledge during the period of assignment under the Scheme. Students interested in internships in Mumbai may send their bio-data to hrdd@nabard.org. Students interested in pursuing internships in our Regional Offices (located in all state capitals) may send their bio-data to the respective Regional Office at the following email id: (name of the state capital)@nabard.org e.g. - hyderabad@nabard.org, bhopal@nabard.org,chandigarh@nabard.org etc. Along with their CVs students may forward a write up on area/topic in which they desire to do their internship. CVs may be send to only one e-mail id/office. Time frame for the programme: Last Date for receipt of applications – 15 January 2010 Tentative schedule for interviews- Last Week of January 2010 Period of internship – April to July 2010

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The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned West Bengal Rs 857.81 crore during the year 2009-10 so far, the highest ever sanctioned to the State under Rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF). Recently, it has sanctioned Rs 197.51 crore under the fund, which includes Rs. 10.19 crore for cost escalations in respect of earlier tranches, to the state government.

The projects sanctioned by Nabard includes construction of brick paved roads, bridges, development of agricultural farms rural markets, rural industrial estate projects, and one joint forest management project.

For improving rural connectivity in the Sundarban area, an amount of Rs 40.69 crore has been sanctioned for 19 brick-paved road projects in North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts. A road length of 218 km is expected to be created under these projects. Non-recurring employment generation is expected to be 15.26 lakh man days and the projects would benefit 208 villages, according to a press release by Nabard.

An amount of Rs. 12.52 cr has been sanctioned for nine rural bridge projects in Bardhaman, Malda and Paschim Medinipur districts of the State. A total bridge length of 289.14 metres will be created under these projects. The non-recurring employment generation under this is expected to be 5.31 lakh man days and the projects would benefit a population of 1.03 lakh in 78 villages.

In order to improve state agricultural farms, and provide proper storage facilities for seeds and fertilizers, while ensuring supply of quality seeds to farmers, an amount of Rs 34.86 crore has been sanctioned for infrastructure development of 35 agriculture farms. The farms are expected to benefit 6.15 lakh farmers in Bardhaman, Bankura, Birbhum, Howrah and Paschim Medinipur districts. Non-recurring employment generation is expected to be 11.01 lakh man days

Also, an amount of Rs 23.57 crore has been sanctioned to establish two industrial estates and one garment and textile Park in Birbhum and South 24 Parganas districts.

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NABARD has asked banks in Himachal Pradesh to increase their credit flow by 20 per cent to the priority sector to achieve the estimated potential of Rs 5,154 crore for the next financial year (2010-11).“The assessment of potential is Rs 1,965 crore for the agricultural sector and Rs 3,185 crore for the services, manufacturing, housing and education sectors,” said Nabard Executive Director, S K Mitra, at the Nabard credit seminar held here recently. The state focus paper was also released on the occasion.

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Popularity: 2% [?]