Kolkata, May 6, 2021

 

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has extended financial support of Rs. 9162 crore to the State of West Bengal during the year 2020-21 for the development of agriculture and allied sectors despite challenges due to Covid-19 pandemic. This includes Rs. 1269.27 crore loan to the State Govt. for various rural infrastructure development, Rs. 3842.32 crore long-term refinance assistance to Rural Financial Institutions (RFIs) for financing investment activities in agriculture & allied sectors and MSME sector and Rs. 3757.50 crore short-term refinance to RFIs for supporting production and marketing activities of farmers and rural artisans. For the year 2021-22, NABARD has estimated a credit potential of Rs. 2.21 lakh crores for West Bengal to be disbursed by various banks for the priority sector activities. This was stated by Dr. A R Khan, Chief General Manager, NABARD, West Bengal Regional Office today.

Dr. Khan also stated that during 2020-21, the Bank sanctioned 2284 new rural infrastructure projects consisting of rural roads, rural bridges, medium and minor irrigation projects, flood protection projects, solar power plants and Anganwadi Centres with RIDF loan support of Rs.1659.62 crore to the Government of West Bengal. On implementation, these projects will lead to creation of 857 km length of rural roads and 129-metre long rural bridges benefitting 949 villages and favourably impacting about 70 lakh people in the rural areas. The 1155 irrigation projects will provide assured irrigation facilities to 30946 ha of agricultural land benefitting 2.19 lakh farmers in 1304 villages of the state.  The 22 Flood Protection projects would help in protecting about 17354 ha of land in 70 villages and bringing relief to 6.98 lakh people in flood prone areas. Two solar power plants sanctioned under RIDF would generate 20 MW power for lighting 06 villages and providing electrical facilities to 29,000 villagers. Similarly, 966 Anganwadi Centres will benefit about 61,000 women of 966 villages, in providing facilities for their children. 

According to the CGM, to promote irrigation efficiency in the water scarce areas, NABARD sanctioned a Micro Irrigation project to the Govt. of West Bengal with loan support of Rs.276.55 crore under its Micro Irrigation Fund. This will bring 74,592 ha area under micro irrigation coverage spread over 10 districts of the State. 

With a view to addressing the liquidity constraints faced by the RFIs due to adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic, NABARD provided a Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) of Rs.720 crore to Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs in the State under economic stimulus package to enable them to fully meet the crop loan requirements of small and marginal farmers, Dr Khan stated.

Under the Long-term refinance facility, NABARD extended concessional refinance support of Rs. 2403.33 crore to Commercial Banks followed by Rs.701.0 crore to the Cooperative Banks, Rs. 157 crore to Regional Rural Banks and Rs. 581 crore to NBFC/NBFC-MFIs in the State. Similarly, under the Short-term facility, the Bank disbursed a refinance of Rs. 3757.50 crore to the Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs for lending towards crop production and other seasonal agriculture operations. This includes a Special Liquidity Facility of Rs. 720 crore extended to these banks to meet the crop loan requirement of small & marginal farmers during Covid-19 pandemic. Further, to ease the liquidity crunch in the sector, a Special Liquidity Facility of Rs. 450 crore was extended to NBFC/NBFC-MFIs/smaller mFIs in the State, which helped around 1,59,800 JLG members in rural and semi-urban areas of the State to avail credit facility for continuing their economic activities.

NABARD facilitated capital subsidy disbursement of Rs. 112 lakh to individual borrowers under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme of Govt. of India for creation of 27,907 MT of additional storage capacity in 06 districts of the State namely, Birbhum, Hooghly, Bardhaman, Jalpaiguri, Malda and Uttar Dinajpur.

Under the NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA) Fund, a loan of Rs.208.91 crore was provided to WBSETCL for the construction of sub-stations to facilitate availability of reliable and quality power supply in Nadia, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas and Purulia districts of West Bengal.

In order to supplement the State Govt.’s financial resources for undertaking paddy procurement under KMS 2020-21, NABARD extended a credit facility of Rs.300 crore to BENFED, which facilitated the State Govt. in making payment to about 35,000 small and marginal farmers within 03 days of paddy procurement through DBT.

Under its developmental interventions, NABARD sanctioned two grant-based projects on supporting sustainable livelihoods to the tribal population covering around 700 tribal families. These projects involve animal husbandry (piggery, goatery) and kitchen garden activities in Jalpaiguri district (200 families) and horticulture (Mango & Cashew) based activities in Jhargram district (500 families).  Cumulatively, NABARD has sanctioned 56 such projects in the State of West Bengal with grant assistance of Rs. 138.32 crore benefitting over 31,500 tribal families and around 12000 ha tribal land through orchard development of various horticultural crops. 

Three (03) new Watershed Development Projects were sanctioned during the year, two in Purulia and one in Jhargram district with focus on efficient soil and water conservation measures, improving agricultural productivity and promotion of climate-resilient agricultural practices. As on 31 March 2021, NABARD has sanctioned 58 watershed development projects and two Integrated Water Management projects in the State with aggregate grant support of Rs. 30.98 crore.  About 46,145 ha of land have been covered under watershed development impacting around 45,000 rural households spread over seven districts in the State namely, Jhargram, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia, Bardhaman, Darjeeling and Malda.

With a view to promote collectivization of agricultural produce for enhancing farmers’ income through leveraging the economies of scale, NABARD has promoted around 300 Farmer Producers’ Organization’s (FPOs) in the State having current shareholder membership of over 1.50 lakh farmers. In addition, 12 new FPOs were promoted in Animal Husbandry and Fisheries clusters having economic activities such as dairy, goatery, duckery, poultry and fisheries. These initiatives have encouraged the small/marginal farmers to harness their collectivize strengths and directly participate in the agri value chain for enhanced price realization of their produce, increase income and reduce post-harvest losses by way of accessing modern technologies, quality input services and undertaking value addition of their produce. 

As a National Implementing Entity (NIE), NABARD is facilitating implementation of one NAFCC project on ‘Rainwater Harvesting and Sustainable Water Supply to hilly areas in Darjeeling as an adaptive measure to potential climate change impacts’ through Municipal Engineering Directorate, Government of West Bengal.  This has led to installation of Rooftop Water Harvesting Structures in 3000 individual households, thereby giving a push to improved water management and better water security in the area. 

In addition, NABARD is implementing a project on ‘Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Increasing Resilience of Small and Marginal Farmers’ in Purulia and Bankura districts of the State by sourcing grant fund from Adaptation Fund Board of USA.  On completion, the project will enhance the adaptive capacity of 5000 vulnerable farm families by adapting measures to tide over the adverse impacts of climate change on their food and livelihood security.  During the year, NABARD has supported 07 Skill Development Programmes on welding, refrigeration, air conditioner, automotive service technician, cellphone repair, etc. and imparted training to 1150 rural youth in 10 districts through partner agencies affiliated to National Skill Development Council (NSDC) with grant support of Rs.106.68 lakh.

NABARD sponsored more than 200 rural artisans to participate in seven State level and district level melas/ exhibitions by extending grant support of Rs.45.09 lakh.  This facilitated direct connect between buyers and sellers for sustainable market linkages besides promoting sales of their products. Further, grant support was provided to SHG members/ farmers for setting up of one Rural Mart and 02 Rural Haats for creating marketing infrastructure in rural areas of Uttar Dinajpur, Alipurduar and Birbhum districts.

On the Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji, NABARD launched Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) awareness campaign on October 2, 2020 to create mass awareness about health and sanitation in rural areas. Under this, 100 camps were organized in various villages of all the districts in the State with participation of major stakeholders. To encourage the banks for providing credit facility in the rural areas for construction/ renovation of toilets, drinking water supply and other WASH related activities, NABARD has earmarked a fund of Rs. 800 crore to extend refinance facility at concessional rate of interest to the participating banks. 

Under the financial and digital literacy initiatives, NABARD supported organizing about 8000 Digital & Financial Literacy Programmes (dFLAP) by various banks in 22 districts of the State.  This facilitated in opening about 40 lakh new BSBD accounts and enrolling of around 9.60 lakh persons under social security schemes, viz. PMSBY, PMJJBY and APY.  Further, 6500 Rupay Debit Cards and Rupay Kisan Cards were issued and around 5500 cards were activated.  In addition, NABARD sanctioned 2500 POS/mPOS machines to RCBs and Payment Banks in the State during 2020-21.

NABARD facilitated training of around 2280 SHG/JLG members under its Livelihood Entrepreneurship Development Programme (LEDP) and Micro Entrepreneurship Development Programme (MEDP). In addition, 1600 Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) were promoted and credit-linked during the year with grant support of Rs.64 lakh. NABARD facilitated digitization of 73,591 SHGs on its E-Shakti Portal of which 58,742 SHGs have been credit-linked. 

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