NABARD celebrated its 39th foundation day at Head Quarters of Tripura Gramin Bank (TGB) in Agartala on Saturday. On the occasion, Agriculture Minister Pranajit Singha Roy released a booklet titled, “NABARD in Tripura”. This highlighted various activities of NABARD and the way ahead for the State of Tripura. On this occasion, NABARD signed a MoU with TGB to support formation and linkage of 10,000 Joint Liability Group (JLG) for next two years.
Moreover, sanction letters for financial support were issued for hybrid solar deep freezer for storage, Khoya and Paneer machine for processing, Fishery development, Bamboo plantation for artisans, seed village, Micro Enterprise Development Programmes to NGOs for livelihood support, technology support to Banks etc.
In his inaugural speech, Pranajit Singha Roy congratulated NARARD for its role. He also mentioned that Tripura is one of the leading beneficiaries of RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) loans from NABARD.
He outlined the State Government’s policies for agriculture and allied sectors including cash crops.
The focus has to be on other allied sector activities such as Irrigation, Animal Husbandry, Poultry, Fisheries etc. and cash crops like Rubber for diversification of the income basket of farmers.
Singha Roy also urged the farmers to analyze cost and earning aspect of a particular crop before starting cultivation. He cited the example of maize cultivation in which return on investment is very high. He also stressed on cultivation as well as producing final products. “We can cultivate Daal – but as there is no Daal mill, the product fetches less value. It is important to set up Daal mills as well”, he said.
Taking note of the low per capita credit availability for farming, he emphasized on expansion of bank credit.
In his welcome address, DGM of NABARD, P K Mohapatra said that the NABARD since its inception in 1982 has been contributing to the efforts of the State Government in ensuring growth with equitable and distributive justice.
During 2019-20, NABARD has provided financial assistance of Rs. 540 crore to the State Government, banks, corporations, NGOs, etc. Moreover, it pioneered in bringing about institutional reforms in the working of the rural financial institutions paved the way for facilitating credit flow to the desired sectors and launched numerous replicable initiatives in the State.
For 2020-21, NABARD has identified certain focused areas for improvement, through the convergence of efforts of all development partners- Irrigation, Fishery, Dairy, Potato, Beekeeping, FPOs, Bamboo Artisans, WADI (Eagan), Rubber KCC and Smokehouse, Bargadars financing through JLGs, Storage and Market Yard and Organic Farming.
The Foundation Day celebration programme was attended by DGM NABARD, Chairman Tripura Gramin Bank, Chairman Tripura State Cooperative Bank, General Manager RBI, Joint Director, ICAR, Principal, College of Fishery, Principal, College of Agriculture Tripura, Government Officials, NGOs and Farmers and other dignitaries.
