NABARD to Provide Financial Aid worth Rs 20,500 Crore for Agricultural Operations for Pre-Monsoon & Kharif

NABARD has decided to provide financial assistance to Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in order to increase the efficacy of their pre-monsoon Kharif operations. The financial aid is worth Rs 20,500 crores. While Rs 15,200 crores out of the total amount will be provided to the farmers through cooperative banks, the remaining amount of Rs 5,300 crore will be allocated through RRBs as a special liquidity facility across various states. 

This fund is against the ₹5,000 crores lent during the first quarter of the last year, as per the statement released by NABARD. The fund will be given as a means of front-loading the resources of these banks in order to maintain adequate liquidity with the banks for financing the farmers in the future. Along with this, banks have already initiated a programme of saturation of Kisan credit cards (KCC). About 12 lakh new KCC cards have been issued by Cooperative banks and RRBs during the last two months while 4.2 crore KCCs have been issued by Cooperative banks & RRBs as of 31 March 2020. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also announced during one of her address to the nation about the ₹20-lakh-crore special economic package that Nabard would be extending additional refinance support of ₹30,000 crores for crop loan requirement of Rural Co-operative Banks and RRBs. 

NABARD is the apex development financial institution that aims at promoting sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development across the nation.