Financial assistance to Punjab may cross Rs 11,000 crore this fiscal: Nabard

Bindra said Nabard Punjab office had disbursed funds to the tune of Rs 9,289 crore in 2018-19. Nabard, the apex development financial institution catering to agriculture and rural development, he said had provided assistance of Rs 458.24 crore to the state government under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for creation of critical rural infrastructure facilities.

He said an additional Rs 27.13 crore was made available to Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Limited (PAICL) for the development of mega food park at Ludhiana and Rs 317.4 crore under its Infrastructure Development Fund to state power transmission utility for rejuvenating transmission infrastructure across the state last year.

“Under warehouse infrastructure fund, Nabard has sanctioned Rs 210 crore to state owned PUNGRAIN for creation of 5 lakh MT silos and Rs 255 crore to PSWC for creation of new godowns and modernisation of existing storage infrastructure across Punjab,” he said. To boost capital formation in agriculture, Bindra said Nabard provided refinance of Rs 3749.41 crore to various banks during 2018-19, which shall be increased to Rs 4000 crore this year.

To encourage diversification of crops, Nabard has prepared area development plans of Rs 1,918 crore for 2018-19 to promote dairy, vegetable cultivation, apiculture, and mushroom growing to supplement farmers’ income, he said.

Pointing out that paddy straw burning was a big issue in Punjab which resulted not only in emission of harmful gases, but also affected agriculture productivity adversely besides also affecting human and livestock, Bindra said Nabard last year ran an awareness campaign on crop residue management in cluster mode across the 22 districts of the state. He said the campaign would continue for another two years and would cover all the villages, around 13000, during that time.

He said to address the issue of input supply, crop productivity and marketing, NABARD had initiated the process of bringing the farmers together as Farmers Producer Organisation which was a registered entity.