CM unveils Credit Plan road map on agriculture, allied activities

The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik attended the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) sponsored State Credit Seminar in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. In the seminar the Chief Minister has released State Focus Paper on agriculture, allied activities.

NABARD has decided to adopt credit projections of Rs 11,500 crore for priority sectors in Orissa during 2009-10. Earlier, Nabard had assessed the potential linked credit requirement of the priority sector in the state at Rs 9959.22 crore for 2009-10. But Nabard hikes the credit target by 28 per cent to the tune of Rs 11, 500 crore following meeting of Nabard chairman, UC Sarangi with the state officials.

Major focus should be given to agriculture sector as about 84 percent of the landholders belong to small and marginal farmers category and 44 percent of them belong to the schedule caste and schedule tribe.

Considering the need of the capital formation in agriculture in the country, the Nabard chief said, the 11th five year plan stated that investment in the agriculture sector should be 16 percent of the agricultural GDP.