Bhubaneswar: After Kalia (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation), the state government in collaboration with NABARD will implement a new scheme christened ‘Balaram’ this year with a view to ensure credit flow to landless farmers.
A decision in this regard was taken at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy at the Lok Seba Bhawan here Thursday.
Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment secretary Sourabh Garg outlined the different facets of the proposal designed together with NABARD.
The credit facility will be provided to the landless farmers on the basis of ‘social collateral’ through joint liability groups (JLGs). The credit would be available to the sharecroppers as normal crop loan. The rate of interest and interest subvention would be as per the existing norms of the state government.
NABARD Chief General Manager A Chandra Sekhar said, “This scheme is the first of its kind in the country. Through this scheme, the real field-level agricultural activities will have credit inflow of around Rs 1,040 crore.”
Each bank would finance at least 10 JLGs in a year. There are around 7,000 branches of different banks and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) in the rural and semi-urban areas. Each JLG would comprise five members.
Loan to each group could be extended up to Rs 1.60 lakh. It is targeted to cover around 7 lakh landless cultivators through 1.40 lakh JLGs within a period of two years.
The Institute of Management & Advance Global Excellence (IMAGE) and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) would be the nodal agencies at the state and district levels, respectively.
It was decided to incentivize the Krushak Sathis and VAWs through ATMA for formation of JLGs, linking them to banks, mobilizing disbursal of credit and facilitating repayment of the loan.
During the meeting, Tripathy directed concerned officials to workout appropriate institutional mechanisms for coordination and monitoring at different levels. “Extending credit to the actual cultivators will be a firm step towards enhancing productivity in the agricultural sector,” Tripathy said.
Finance Secretary Ashok Meena has been advised to mobilise the banking sector through SLBCs for extending credit support to the landless cultivators and sharecroppers who generally remain out of the credit fold.
Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra advised officials to orient Krusak Sathis and Village Agriculture Workers to implement the scheme in its true spirit.