The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Wednesday projected Karnataka’s credit potential at Rs 3.32 lakh crore in priority sectors for 2022-23, a 12.45 per cent jump from its lending projection for the fiscal ending this March.
This credit potential will be used by the state government and banks to prepare the annual credit plan (ACP), which will have lending targets in the priority sectors of agriculture, MSME, export, education, housing, renewable energy and social infrastructure.
According to the State Focus Paper 2022-23 released here, the credit potential for the agriculture sector is projected to be Rs 1.61 lakh crore, nearly half of all the priority sector lendings that can happen in the next fiscal.
Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner Vandita Sharma, who released the State Focus Paper, said the 12.45 per cent increase in the state’s credit potential was not enough. She called upon banks to come to the aid of farmers.
“In the last 10-11 years, we’ve had only one normal year against eight drought years and two years of floods plus Covid-19,” she said. “55 per cent of the state’s land is used for agriculture and 60-65 per cent of the population is engaged in farming. And, 80 per cent of the farmers are small and marginal.”
Stressing on the need to help farmers, Sharma said the fragmentation of agricultural land is increasing year on year. “This isn’t good. Large landholdings are coming down,” she said. “Farmers need maximum support from the government and the banks.”
According to State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) convener PC Damodaran, the priority sector lending target for the 2021-22 fiscal was Rs 2.92 lakh crore against which banks have achieved Rs 93,438 crore. “Banks will be asked to meet the target by the end of the fiscal,” he said.
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(Published 12 January 2022, 13:16 IST)
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