NABARD estimates credit potential of Odisha at Rs 1,10,735 crore

Bhubaneswar: NABARD has assessed a total credit requirement of Rs 1,10,7,35 crore for the year 2021-22 with greater emphasis on crop diversification, animal husbandry and fishery sector apart from the greater thrust on enhancing credit flow to Self Help Groups.

In the State Credit Seminar for 2021-22 conducted on Monday, the State Focus Paper for the state was released by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.

C Udayabhaskar, Chief General Manager, NABARD explained the process of preparation of credit projection for priority sector, which forms the basis of Annual Credit Plan.

The document assesses infrastructure available and requirement to stimulate credit growth. The document is also used as a referral document for planning infrastructure and growth in credit dispensation by all stakeholders.

He also said that the Credit projections for Odisha for 2021-22 is  Rs.110735 crore which  is based on the potential assessed under various sectors and sub sectors in all the agro climatic zones of the state.

He solicited cooperation of State Govt Banks and other stake holders towards achieving the credit growth required to realize the potential identified under plan.

He also highlighted the important business and developmental initiatives of NABARD in the state.

Niranjan Pujari congratulated NABARD for bringing out a well-researched document.

He also 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.

He emphasized upon increasing the Agri term loan finance in allied sector activities such as Animal Husbandry, Poultry, Fisheries leading to asset formation and diversification of the income basket of farmers.

He also advised RBI and all the bankers to increase their banking outreach in unbanked areas of the state in order to help the State Govt. in effective implementation of various developmental programmes and also increase the scope of digital banking and FI across the state.

He emphasized the need of a coordinated support from all the stakeholders to make Odisha a leading state in Indian economy.

Raj Kumar Sharma, Agriculture Production Commissioner complimented NABARD for highlighting the importance of Agriculture and allied sector in overall credit potential of the state.

He outlined the various policies that Odisha Government has initiated in order to augment the farmer’s income like Odisha Agriculture Policy, KALIA & BALRAM Scheme & Odisha FPO Policy 2018.

P K Jena, IAS, Development Commissioner also appreciated the efforts of NABARD in bringing out the State Focus Paper  and holding the State Credit Seminar in time which will facilitate  better credit planning in future.

He also highlighted the necessity to motivate the farmers to take up remunerative crop where irrigation facility has been provided. 

Providing real life incidence, he highlighted timely provision of credit to farmers as a critical input for the improvement of farm sector in the state.

A.K.K. Meena, IAS, Principal Secretary, Finance informed that Odisha has been performing consistently well compared to the national level GDP.

However, he pointed out that the share of the Bank credit in the GSDP of the state is much below than the contribution of credit to national level GDP.

This reflects that while state is doing its best and Banks have large scope to enhance its partnership in the progress. He advised Banks to double the credit assistance being given to the SHGs.  

Major highlights of 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 46460.40 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.

Agri Incubation centre may be developed to promote start-ups greenfield areas.

Skill development and entrepreneurship development to be taken up for building the solid foundation for the private capital formation.

SHG loans to be doubled from the present levels.