Vijayawada: Nabard gave 27,992 crore loans to State in during 2019-20

Vijayawada: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) had extended loans to the state worth Rs 27, 992 crore during 2019-20 as against the Rs 19,801 crore disbursed in the previous year, said S Selvaraj, chief general manager of Andhra Pradesh Regional office in a statement here on Thursday.

Selvaraj said that the total refinance extended to the banks in the state for supporting short term crop loans and long term agriculture financing touched Rs 20,515 crore which is a growth of 29 per cent over last year. Major portion of refinance was given to the rural cooperative banks followed by regional rural banks and commercial banks keeping in line with its mandate of strengthening rural financial institutions, he said.

The Nabard sanctioned projects worth Rs 1,199 crore under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and released Rs 1,200 crore to the state government for completion of the projects this year, he said. It also sanctioned Rs 616 crore under Micro Irrigation Fund to supplement the efforts of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sanchayee Yojana.

Referring to the other major projects in the state, Selvaraj said that Sangam Dairy was sanctioned Rs. 31.27 crore for a dairy processing in Guntur district, Rs 9.72 crore to Gama Biotech Farms for setting up food processing unit and Rs 11.40 crore to Andhra Pradesh Warehousing Corporation for the construction of three warehouses.

The Nabard extended Rs. 1,931 crore for completion of Chintalapudi lift irrigation project including drinking water supply to West Godavari and Krishna districts and released Rs 819 crore to the AP Water Resources Development Corporation. It also supported AP State Civil Supplies Corporation with a working capital loan of Rs 4,030 crore for paddy procurement operations, he said.