25-Aug-2020: 14 States finalise action plan for Agri export policy: Commerce Ministry
As many as 14 States, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Assam, have finalised the State-specific action plan for agriculture export policy (AEP), while the remaining States are at different stages of finalisation of their respective plans, the Commerce Ministry has said.
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is engaged with all States and UTs for implementation of the AEP and has also signed MoUs with AFC India Ltd, and National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), Delhi, to utilise their expertise in the agriculture sector.
The other States that have finalised the action plans include Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur and Sikkim.
The objective of the larger AEP, of which the State plans are a part, is to double farmers’ income and also double agriculture exports from the country over the next few years.
Cluster approach
To promote cluster approach in production of specific crops, 20 cluster level committees have been formed in the cluster districts of potato in Punjab and UP, Isabgol in Rajasthan, orange, pomegranate, grapes and banana in Maharashtra, banana in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, mango in UP, dairy products in Gujarat and UP, rose onion in Karnataka, fresh vegetables in UP, orange in MP, and potato in Gujarat. “Two round of meetings have been conducted in the clusters for sensitisation of the stakeholders and discussion on the interventions required,” the release stated.
It is in this background that APEDA has signed MoUs with institutions like AFC India Ltd and NCUI. AFC, which is wholly-owned by commercial banks, NABARD and EXIM Bank, provides consulting and policy advisory and implementation support for agriculture. NCUI, on the other hand, educates, guides and assists people in their efforts to build up and expand the cooperative sector.
AFC shall undertake the ground level implementation of all the activities under export oriented clusters notified under Agri export policy. Further, APEDA shall facilitate necessary certifications of Agri-produce, organic produce/ farm lands by the cooperatives identified by NCUI. The authority would facilitate exports by the cooperatives identified and trained by NCUI.
24-Aug-2020: NABARD unveils support programmes for MFIs
In a bid to ensure unhindered flow of credit to the last mile in rural areas hit by COVID-19 pandemic, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has tied up with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank and Vivritti to provide Rs 25000 crore funding support to low income households.
The program entails providing partial guarantee on pooled loans extended to small and mid-sized MFIs. It will help facilitate Rs 2,500 crore funding in the initial phase and is expected to be scaled up. The program is expected to cover over 1 million households across 28 states and 650 districts.
“The partially guaranteed loan facility will catalyse much-needed financing to millions of households, agricultural and
business markets to sustain in the post COVID-19 environment" said G R Chintala, Chairman, NABARD.
The Pooled Loan Issuance (PLI) structure is expected to provide the lending bank adequate comfort through NABARD’s partial credit protection, reduces cost of capital as the rating of the loans get notched up and helps lenders meet priority sector goals. The NABARD guarantee has helped attract a large number of mainstream banks and small finance banks to participate, officials said.
NABARD has collaborated with Vivritti Capital, a technology-led credit platform, as the structurer for the facility. Vivritti Capital manages and runs CredAvenueTM, a marketplace for enterprise debt, which enables enterprises to raise debt from loan, bond and securitisation markets. For the rst transaction under the programme, NABARD and Vivritti have partnered with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, a leading lender in this space.
NABARD has led the eorts in rolling out special liquidity lines since the beginning of the pandemic and has disbursed around Rs 2000 crore to MFIs and NBFCs. The bank has emphasised on enabling MFIs to ensure credit access for meeting the demand for credit to rebuild livelihood.
13-May-2019: Nabard announces ₹ 700-cr venture capital fund for Agri, rural startups
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) announced a Rs 700-crore venture capital fund for equity investments in agriculture and rural-focused startups.
NABARD has been contributing to other funds till now and this is the first time that the rural development bank has launched a fund.
The fund has been launched by Nabventures, a subsidiary of NABARD, and has a proposed corpus of Rs 500 crore with an option to retain over-subscriptions of Rs 200 crore, called as the greenshoe option.
NABARD has given an anchor commitment for the fund, which will be investing across startups engaged in agriculture, food and rural development space. The fund had its first close but details of the investments done by NABARD and other limited partners, if any, were not immediately available.
The fund will have a high impact as it will provide a boost to investment ecosystem in the core areas of agriculture, food and improvement of rural livelihoods.
Nabventures is now scouting for equity investments in asset-light, innovative, technology-led start-ups in its focus areas.
Till now, NABARD has contributed Rs 273 crore to 16 alternate investment funds. NABARD is now 100 per cent owned by the government, which has been focusing on startups through a slew of measures.
8-Aug-2017: e-Shakti initiative of NABARD
e-Shakti is a pilot project of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for digitisation of Self Help Groups (SHGs). It was initiated to address certain concerns like improving the quality of book keeping of SHGs and to enable banks to take informed credit decisions about the group through a Management Information System (MIS). The project covers 25 districts and 1,30,176 SHGs have been digitised as on 31st March, 2017.
As per information compiled by NABARD, about 69,696 SHGs of the SHGs which have been digitised are credit linked as on 31st July, 2017. No SHG has been de-recognised on account of, or, after digitisation. The digitisation project does not impact the profit/ loss position of the SHGs.
The project aims at digitisation of all the SHG accounts to bring SHG members under the fold of Financial Inclusion thereby helping them access wider range of financial services together with increasing the bankers’ comfort in credit appraisal and linkage by way of: Integrating SHG members with the national Financial Inclusion agenda. Improving the quality of interface between SHG members and Banks for efficient and hassle free delivery of banking services by using the available technology. Facilitate convergence of delivery system with SHGs using Aadhaar linked identity.
The need of digitisation of records of SHGs has been felt for quite some time due to patchy and delay in maintenance of books of accounts. Transparent and proper maintenance of records of SHGs will facilitate in nurturing and strengthening of SHGs. It is also felt that digital empowerment will help in bringing SHGs on a common web based e-platform by making book keeping easy for low literacy clients. This will help in promoting national agenda of Financial Inclusion and pave the way of credibility of SHG data which can later be used by Credit Bureaus to reduce the issues related to multiple financing by banks.
Benefits of the project:
- A comprehensive information base and robust MIS can be developed about poor community covered, which may facilitate suitable interventions and convergence of other programme for social and financial empowerment.
- It will help in identifying suitable interventions and support for proper nurturing and strengthening of SHGs.
- Ease of transfer of social benefits and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) through Aadhaar linked accounts and convergence with other Government benefits.
22-Mar-2017: NABARD launches Water Conservation Campaign to cover around 1 lakh villages
NABARD, on the occasion of World Water Day (22-3-2017) launched a major Water Campaign to cover around 1,00,000 villages in vulnerable/water stressed areas where the ground water is over exploited.
Major highlights of the campaign include community participation in adopting efficient irrigation methods, ground water recharge and appropriate crop pattern for enhancing agricultural productivity.
NABARD would identify Village Volunteers (Krishi Jaldoots) to run the campaign for a localized and more effective approach. These volunteers will increase awareness about various methods of rain water harvesting, efficient water use, groundwater recharge and integrated farming systems.
The activities will be coordinated by NABARD's Regional Offices jointly with representatives from the State Governments, State Level Bankers' Committee, Partner NGOs, Agricultural Universities, Water Experts and Farmers' Club Volunteers, among others.