- A MARKETING INITIATIVE•
NABARD is India’s apex development
bank, formed by an Act of Parliament in
1982 and wholly owned by the Govern-
ment of India (GoI). Its mandate is to
promote sustainable and equitable agri-
culture and rural development. NABARD’s
activities can be broadly categorised into
three heads: Financial, Developmental
and Supervision. Through these initia-
tives, the institution touches almost every
aspect of rural economy.
FINANCE ROLE
NABARD provides refinance to banks for
financing farmers and rural entrepreneurs
for their production needs as well as
investments. During FY 2018-19, Rs 55,000
crore has been sanctioned for seasonal
agricultural operations and Rs 35,000
crore against other short-term lending.
Similarly, NABARD provides long-term re-
finance to financial institutions for capital
formation in agriculture and rural sector.
It is meant for a wide gamut of activities
encompassing farm and non-farm sectors
with tenors of 18 months to 5 years and
above. During FY 2018-19, refinance of Rs
90,254 crore has been extended to finan-
cial institutions taking the total outstand-
ing to Rs 1,54,000 crore. The refinance is
extended to develop irrigation facilities,
land development, farm mechanisation,
animal husbandry, fisheries, warehouses &
cold storages, market yards, etc.
The bank has also been funding
creation of public infrastructure in rural
areas through a dedicated Fund called
Rural Infrastructure Development Fund
(RIDF). RIDF funds State Governments for
taking up rural infrastructure projects.
Cumulative sanction under the facil-
ity stands at Rs 3,44,141 crore as on 31
March 2019. It has resulted in additional
irrigation potential of 330 lakh ha. and
additional rural road network of 4.68
lakh kms, inter alia. RIDF has been in
existence for the last 25 years.
In the recent period, NABARD has also
taken steps to support GoI in finding so-
lutions to various problems in rural areas
such as lack of irrigation, housing and
sanitation. A separate Fund by the name
Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) has been
created in NABARD for completion of 99
medium and major irrigation projects.
Additional irrigation potential of 81.37
lakh ha. is expected to be created upon
completion of these projects.
Similarly, the GoI’s initiative to provide
housing for all by 2022 through Pradhan
Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G)
is also supported by NABARD. Rs 18,008
crore has been extended to GoI to consti-
tute 85.31 lakh houses. NABARD has also
been supporting the sanitation initia-
tive of the GoI through Swachh Bharat
Mission – Gramin by providing credit to
GoI for construction of toilets. During FY
2018-19, Rs 8,698.20 crore was released
facilitating construction of 2.23 crore
household toilets.
Realising the importance of infra-
structure development in rural areas to
accomplish speedy growth, NABARD has
instituted a separate Fund called NABARD
Infrastructure Development Assistance
(NIDA), which provides loans to State
Governments and State Government enti-
ties as well as corporations and coopera-
tives for various infrastructure projects
with longer-term repayment.DEVELOPMENT FUNCTIONS
NABARD has been involved in creating
various developmental models in rural
areas. This included skilling of rural
youth, cluster development, microfinance,
farmers clubs, producer organisations,
financial inclusion, climate change adap-
tation and mitigation projects, watershed
development, tribal development, etc.
Producer organisation is a major
step in mobilising unorganised primary
producers in farm and off-farm activities
with a view to gain from economies of
scale and collective bargaining. There
are more than 4000 farmer producer
organisations and 30 off-farm producerorganisations supported by NABARD.
SHG Bank Linkage Programme (SHGBLP)
promoted by NABARD since 1992 is the
world’s largest microfinance programme.
There are more than 10 million SHGs
promoted by NABARD, which benefits
around 120 million rural families. So far,
50.77 lakh SHGs have been credit-linked.
Of late, NABARD has embarked on a pro-
gramme called EShakti by which SHGs are
being digitised for better efficiency and
easy loaning.
Conservation of soil and water has
been a major initiative of NABARD. It has
supported development of 1642 Wa-
tersheds across the country, which has
benefited over 20 lakh ha. of land from
degradation. It has also provided better
livelihood options to rural populace.
Tribal development is one of the flag-
ship activities of NABARD. It has devel-
oped a programme called WADI wherein
one acre of land of tribal people is sup-
ported to be developed into an orchard,
which provides sustainable income to
tribal people. There are 746 projects sup-
ported by NABARD, which have benefited
5.23 lakh tribal families.SUPPORT TO AGRI BUSINESS
ENTERPRISES
With a view to support development of
agri business entrepreneurs, NABARD has
been assisting start-ups in agriculture
and rural areas. It has been funding
Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs), which
fund the agri start-ups. So far, 16 funds
have been provided financial assistance
of Rs 230 crore that has benefited over 50
start-ups. Further, to take this movement
forward, NABARD has launched a separate
subsidiary called NABVENTURES, which
will fund agri start-ups directly. NAB-
VENTURES has launched its first category
II AIF with a corpus of Rs 500 crore and
green shoe option of Rs 200 crore. The
first closure of the Fund has been done
with Rs 200 crore and it is expected to
benefit social start-ups in the country.NABARD
TAKING RURAL INDIA FORWARD