Description
Explaining NABARD is set up as an apex Development Bank with a mandate for facilitating credit flow for promotion and development of agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts.
NABARD (NATIONAL BANK FOR AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT)
Introduction
NABARD is set up as an apex Development Bank with a mandate for facilitating credit flow for promotion and development of agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts. It also has the mandate to support all other allied economic activities in rural areas, promote integrated and sustainable rural development and secure prosperity of rural areas. In discharging its role as a facilitator for rural prosperity NABARD is entrusted with:1. 2. 3. Providing refinance to lending institutions in rural areas Bringing about or promoting institutional development and Evaluating, monitoring and inspecting the client banks Besides this pivotal role, NABARD also: •Acts as a coordinator in the operations of rural credit institutions •Extends assistance to the government, the Reserve Bank of India and other organizations in matters relating to rural development •Offers training and research facilities for banks, cooperatives and organizations working in the field of rural development •Helps the state governments in reaching their targets of providing assistance to eligible institutions in agriculture and rural development •Acts as regulator for cooperative banks and RRBs •Extends assistance to the government, the Reserve Bank of India and other organizations in matters relating to rural development •Offers training and research facilities for banks, cooperatives and organizations working in the field of rural development •Helps the state governments in reaching their targets of providing assistance to eligible institutions in agriculture and rural development •Acts as regulator for cooperative banks and RRBs
Some of the milestones in NABARD's activities are:
•Total production credit disbursed at end March 2011 was 34196 crore. •Refinance disbursement under Investment Credit to commercial banks, state cooperative banks, state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks, RRBs and other eligible financial institutions during 2010-11 aggregated 13485.87 crore. • Through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) 12060.04 crores were disbursed during 2010-11. A cumulative amount of 121488.40 crore has been sanctioned for 444162 projects as on 31 March 2011 covering irrigation, rural roads and bridges, health and education, soil conservation, drinking water schemes, flood protection, forest management etc. •Under Watershed Development Fund which has a balance of 579 projects in districts of 14 states have benefited. 1847.69 crore as on 31 March 2011,
•Farmers now enjoy hassle free access to credit and security through 1009.30 lakh Kisan Credit Cards that have been issued through a vast rural banking network. During 2010-11, 72.6 lakh KCC were issued by banks with a sanctioned limit of 43370 crore. •Under the Farmers' Club Programme, during the year 21903 clubs were launched, taking the total to 76708 clubs as on 31 March 2011 helping farmers get access to credit, technology and extension services. •Village Development Programme (VDP) is being implemented in 801 villages across 25 states. •Under Tribal Development Fund, cumulative sanction amounted to 917.60 crore for 317 projects covering 2.5 lakh families. During 2010-11 financial assistance of 373.97 crore was sanctioned for 126 projects benefiting 94,163 tribal families. •Under Farm Innovation and Promotion Fund (FIPF), cumulatively 123 projects in various states, involving financial support of 11.65 crore were sanctioned as on 31 March 2011. •Farmers Technology Transfer Fund (FTTF) – 512 innovative projects in 27 states with grant assistance of 44.97 crore were sanctioned during 2010-11. •There were more than 69.53 lakh savings linked SHGs and more than 48.51 lakh credit linked SHGs covering 9.7 crore poor households as on 31 March 2011, under the microfinance programme.
Genesis and Historical Background
The Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development (CRAFICARD) set up by the RBI under the Chairmanship of Shri B Sivaraman in its report submitted to Governor, Reserve Bank of India on November 28, 1979 recommended the establishment of NABARD. The Parliament through the Act 61 of 81, approved its setting up. The Committee after reviewing the arrangements came to the conclusion that a new arrangement would be necessary at the national level for achieving the desired focus and thrust towards integration of credit activities in the context of the strategy for Integrated Rural Development. Against the backdrop of the massive credit needs of rural development and the need to uplift the weaker sections in the rural areas within a given time horizon the arrangement called for a separate institutional set-up. Similarly. The Reserve Bank had onerous responsibilities to discharge in respect of its many basic functions of central banking in monetary and credit regulations and was not therefore in a position to devote undivided attention to the operational details of the emerging complex credit problems. This paved the way for the establishment of NABARD. CRAFICARD also found it prudent to integrate short term, medium term and long-term credit structure for the agriculture sector by establishing a new bank. NABARD is the result of this recommendation. It was set up with an initial capital of Rs 100 crore, which was enhanced to Rs 2,000 crore, fully subscribed by the Government of India and the RBI.
Mission
Promoting sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development through effective credit support, related services, institution building and other innovative initiatives. In pursuing this mission, NABARD focuses its activities on:
Credit functions, involving preparation of potential-linked credit plans annually for all districts of the
country for identification of credit potential, monitoring the flow of ground level rural credit, issuing policy and operational guidelines to rural financing institutions and providing credit facilities to eligible institutions under various programmes.
Development functions, concerning reinforcement of the credit functions and making credit more
productive
Supervisory functions, ensuring the proper functioning of cooperative banks and regional rural banks
Credit functions
NABARD's credit functions cover planning, dispensation and monitoring of credit. This activity involves: • Framing policy and guidelines for rural financial institutions •Providing credit facilities to issuing organizations • Preparation of potential-linked credit plans annually for all districts for identification of credit potential • Monitoring the flow of ground level rural credit
Development and Promotional Functions
Credit is a critical factor in development of agriculture and rural sector as it enables investment in capital formation and technological upgradation. Hence strengthening of rural financial institutions, which deliver credit to the sector, has been identified by NABARD as a thrust area. Various initiatives have been taken to strengthen the cooperative credit structure and the regional rural banks, so that adequate and timely credit is made available to the needy. In order to reinforce the credit functions and to make credit more productive, NABARD has been undertaking a number of developmental and promotional activities such as:•Help cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks to prepare development actionsplans for themselves •Enter into MoU with state governments and cooperative banks specifying their respective obligations to improve the affairs of the banks in a stipulated timeframe •Help Regional Rural Banks and the sponsor banks to enter into MoUs specifying their respective obligations to improve the affairs of the Regional Rural Banks in a stipulated timeframe • Monitor implementation of development action plans of banks and fulfillment of obligations under MOUs •Provide financial assistance to cooperatives and Regional Rural Banks for establishment of technical, monitoring and evaluations cells •Provide organisation development intervention (ODI) through reputed training institutes like Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow www.birdindia.org.in, National Bank Staff College, Lucknow www.nbsc.in and College of Agriculture Banking, Pune, etc. •Provide financial support for the training institutes of cooperative banks •Provide training for senior and middle level executives of commercial banks, Regional Rural Banks and cooperative banks •Create awareness among the borrowers on ethics of repayment through Vikas Volunteer Vahini and Farmer’s clubs •Provide financial assistance to cooperative banks for building improved management information system, computerisation of operations and development of human resources
SUPERVISORY FUNCTIONS As an apex bank involved in refinancing credit needs of major financial institutions in the country engaged in offering financial assistance to agriculture and rural development operations and programmes, NABARD has been sharing with the Reserve Bank of India certain supervisory functions in respect of cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). As part of these functions, it • Undertakes inspection of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Cooperative Banks (other than urban/primary cooperative banks) under the provisions of Banking Regulation Act, 1949. • Undertakes inspection of State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs) and apex non-credit cooperative societies on a voluntary basis • Undertakes portfolio inspections, systems study, besides off-site surveillance of Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) • Provides recommendations to Reserve Bank of India on issue of licenses to Cooperative Banks, opening of new branches by State Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) • Administering Credit Monitoring Arrangements (CMA) in SCBs and CCBs. Core Functions NABARD has been entrusted with the statutory responsibility of conducting inspections of State Cooperative Banks (SCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) under the provisions of Section 35(6) of the Banking Regulation Act (BR Act), 1949. In addition, NABARD has also been conducting periodic inspections of state level cooperative institutions such as State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs), Apex Weavers Societies, Marketing Federations, etc., on a voluntary basis. Objectives of Inspection • To protect the interest of the present and future depositors • To ensure that the business conducted by these banks is in conformity with the provisions of the relevant Acts/Rules, regulations/Bye-Laws, etc • To ensure observance of rules, guidelines, etc., formulated and issued by NABARD/RBI/Government
• To examine the financial soundness of the banks
• To suggest ways and means for strengthening the institutions so as to enable them to play more efficient role in rural credit Instruments of Supervision • Periodic on-site inspection of SCBs, DCCBs, SCARDBs and RRBs and other Apex level Cooperative institutions • Supplementary Appraisal • Off-site Surveillance System ( OSS ) • Portfolio inspection/System study • Monitoring through returns including CMA and Frauds • Attending to complaints in respect of Cooperative Banks (excluding Urban Cooperative Banks) and RRBs Supervisory Strategy In the wake of the banking sector reforms, new set of international norms/practices were made applicable to Commercial Banks (CBs) to make them more competitive and sustainable in the changing scenario. The co-operative banks and RRBs were also to function in the general banking environment, emerging out of the financial sector reforms, introduced by the GOI/RBI. Accordingly, the prudential norms were extended to them in phases. While the capital adequacy norm has not yet been made applicable to these banks, the other prudential norms viz. income recognition, asset classification and provisioning, which were made applicable by RBI to the commercial banking sector had been extended to cover RRBs in 1995-96, SCBs and DCCBs in 1996-97 and by NABARD to SCARDBs in 1997-98. NABARD, through a concrete and time-bound supervision strategy, facilitate these banks to adjust to the new financial discipline so as to internalize prudential norms stipulated. Current Focus Under the revised strategy, a sharper focus of the NABARD’s inspection was given on the core areas of the functioning of banks pertaining to Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity, Systems and Compliance (CAMELSC). Thus, NABARD’s focus in its statutory ‘on-site’ inspections is on core assessments leaving the collateral appraisals to banks. The micro level aspects are to be taken care of by the banks themselves by way of internal inspections or by other agencies such as auditors. In this direction, through a series of workshops and meetings held with the Chief Executives and the Chief Auditors of cooperative banks, NABARD has been attempting to ensure that the other areas, particularly relating to the internal checks and controls, revenue and income realization by way of interest on loans
and advances, investments and other routine features of carrying out general banking transactions were suitably taken care of by the banks and their concurrent/statutory audit systems.
Off-site Surveillance As a part of the new strategy of supervision, a system of `Off-site Surveillance' has been introduced as a supplementary tool to the on-site inspection. Its objectives are to obtain and analyse critical data on a continuous basis, to identify areas of supervisory concern and to identify early warning signals and risky areas requiring further probe. The system basically envisages desk scrutiny of operations of cooperative banks and RRBs through a set of statutory and non-statutory returns. While the periodical statutory onsite inspections attempt an overall evaluation of the performance of the banks with a stipulated period, off-site surveillance envisages continuous supervision supplementing the on-site inspections with additional instruments of supervision. Board of Supervision (for SCBs, DCCBs and RRBs) Board of Supervision (for SCBs, DCCBs and RRBs) has been constituted by NABARD under Section 13(3) of NABARD Act, 1981 as an Internal Committee to the Board of Directors of NABARD. The broad powers and functions of the Board of Supervision are : • Giving directions and guidance in respect of policies and on matters relating to supervision and inspection, reviewing the inspection findings, suggesting appropriate measures • Reviewing the follow-up action taken by Department of Supervision (DoS) on matters of frauds and internal checks and control • Identifying the emerging supervisory issues in the functioning of cooperative banks/RRBs such as NPAs recovery, investment portfolio, credit monitoring system, management practices, frauds, etc. • Suggesting necessary follow-up measures • Recommending appropriate training for Inspecting Officers of NABARD for imparting necessary skills and knowledge • Suggest measures for strengthening of DoS • Recommend issue of directions by RBI • Oversee the quality of inspections carried out and the reports issued • Review the information generated through off-site surveillance and other supplementary vehicles, action taken thereon
• Undertake any other functions entrusted from time to time by the Board of Directors of NABARD The Board of Supervision reviews the financial position of Cooperative Banks and RRBs based on the inspections of these banks by NABARD. Based on the observations of BoS, authorities concerned are apprised of the weaknesses of the banks. Other Initiatives The day-to-day functioning of the supervised banks is being monitored through various statutory returns prescribed by the RBI/NABARD including OSS returns State level groups comprising RCS, Apex bank, Cooperation and Finance Department, State Government, Director of Audit and non-compliant banks have been constituted/convened for preparing/discussing suitable strategy for banks not complying with the provisions of Section 11(1) of BR Act, 1949 [ as applicable to Cooperative Societies (AACS)] and monitoring the progress of Action Plan prepared by them to facilitate recompliance with the provisions. Periodic discussions are held with the MD, Apex Banks, RCS, State Government, etc., to discuss the supervisory concerns. RO set up Suitable and adequate officers are placed in DoS units at RO level to undertake inspection of banks, issue inspection reports and take other follow up measures including review, monitoring of compliance, OSS, etc., in conformity with DoS, HO guidelines.
Objectives
NABARD was established in terms of the Preamble to the Act, "for providing credit for the promotion of agriculture, small scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas with a view to promoting IRDP and securing prosperity of rural areas and for matters connected therewith in incidental thereto". The main objectives of the NABARD as stated in the statement of objectives while placing the bill before the Lok Sabha were categorized as under : 1.The National Bank will be an apex organisation in respect of all matters relating to policy, planning operational aspects in the field of credit for promotion of Agriculture, Small Scale Industries, Cottage and Village Industries, Handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas. 2.The Bank will serve as a refinancing institution for institutional credit such as long-term, short-term for the promotion of activities in the rural areas.
3.The Bank will also provide direct lending to any institution as may approved by the Central Government. 4.The Bank will have organic links with the Reserve Bank and maintain a close link with in.
Major Activities
•Preparing of Potential Linked Credit Plans for identification of exploitable potentials under agriculture and other activities available for development through bank credit. •Refinancing banks for extending loans for investment and production purpose in rural areas. •Providing loans to State Government/Non Government Organizations (NGOs)/Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) for developing rural infrastructure. •Supporting credit innovations of Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and other non-formal agencies. •Extending formal banking services to the unreached rural poor by evolving a supplementary credit delivery strategy in a cost effective manner by promoting Self Help Groups (SHGs) •Promoting participatory watershed development for enhancing productivity and profitability of rainfed agriculture in a sustainable manner. • On-site inspection of cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and iff-site surveillance over health of cooperatives and RRBs.
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
Role and Functions
• NABARD is an apex institution accredited with all matters concerning policy, planning and operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas. •It is an apex refinancing agency for the institutions providing investment and production credit for promoting the various developmental activities in rural areas •It takes measures towards institution building for improving absorptive capacity of the credit delivery system, including monitoring, formulation of rehabilitation schemes, restructuring of credit institutions, training of personnel, etc. •It co-ordinates the rural financing activities of all the institutions engaged in developmental work at the field level and maintains liaison with Government of India, State Governments, Reserve Bank of India and other national level institutions concerned with policy formulation. •It prepares, on annual basis, rural credit plans for all districts in the country; these plans form the base for annual credit plans of all rural financial institutions •It undertakes monitoring and evaluation of projects refinanced by it. •It promotes research in the fields of rural banking, agriculture and rural development
NABARD and its Role in Training •National Bank Staff College, Lucknow
•National Bank Training Centre, Lucknow •Zonal Training Centre, Hyderabad •Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Mangalore •Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Bolpur •Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow The provisions of the Act as stated below very clearly indicate the nature and scope of the developmental mandate of the Bank and its role in training and capacity building with the underlying belief that the process of development cannot be accomplished by credit/refinance alone. Section 38 of the NABARD Act provides that the Bank shall: •maintain expert staff to study all problems relating to agriculture and rural development and be available for consultation to the Central Government, the Reserve Bank, the State Governments and the other institutions engaged in the field of rural development. •provide facilities for training, for dissemination of information and the promotion of research including the undertaking of studies, researches, techno-economic and other surveys in the field of rural banking, agriculture and rural development. •provide technical, legal, financial, marketing and administrative assistance to any person engaged in agriculture and rural development activities; •may provide consultancy services in the field of agriculture and rural development and other related matters in or outside India, on such terms and against such remuneration, as may be agreed upon; In this context, the role of training in NABARD and the role played by it for capacity building in client institutions, partner agencies and other developmental agencies is important. For maintaining 'Expert Staff', the bank needs to provide continuous exposure to its officers and staff for upscaling their knowledge and skills in core areas. However, in the initial years the Bank had recruited expert staff from various technical disciplines and created a separate cadre of officers. These officers were involved in formulating, appraising, monitoring and evaluating different agricultural projects implemented by different credit agencies.These officers, irrespective of their academic background, were imparted similar type of training as all other officers. Their placements and the regular job rotations helped in grooming them to take up assorted assignments, get involved in a variety of roles and functions including credit, developmental, promotional, supervisory and necessary support and information for decision making. The Bank also had access to their specialised skills which were utilised whenever needed. In pursuance of the Bank's mandate as stated in the Act, the Bank provides training facilities for the RFIs and agencies involved in rural development through BIRD and the two RTCs. With a view to broadbase
the training and capacity building efforts, the Bank encourages the RFIs to set up their own training systems and provides these training institutes the necessary support to conduct meaningful and quality training. Options and avenues for strengthening the training interventions at the client level are continuously examined so that the human resources in these institutions are developed to take on the challenges, reckon with the competition, improve customer service, expand outreach, develop suitable products and thereby contribute to rural development. As NABARD primarily functions through other agencies, the needs of the client institutions largely determine the knowledge and skill requirements of NABARD officers. NABARD endeavours to blend the experiences of client bank training with the training for NABARD officers so as to make training meaningful and relevant to their roles. Efforts are also made to blend the study findings with the outcome from training to periodically measure the overall impact of the investments made in the training efforts.
25 YEARS OF DEDICATION TO RURAL PROSPERITY
NABARD completed 25 years of its eventful and trailblazing existence on 12 July 2007. Established in 1982, by an Act of Parliament, NABARD's mandate was to provide focused and undivided attention to the development of rural India by facilitating credit flow for promotion of agriculture and rural non farm sector. Emphasizing this in no uncertain terms, its mission statement underscores NABARD's goal to "promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural prosperity through effective credit support, related services, institution development and other innovative initiatives". NABARD's functions can be classified into 4 major categories viz. Credit Planning, Financial Services, Promotion and Development, and Supervision. Under Credit Planning NABARD prepares Potential Linked Credit Plan (PLP) annually for each district of the country by assessing potential available in agriculture and rural sector. This serves as a guide for banks and Government agencies to prepare their own investment and credit plans in the district and state. Under its Financial services, it refinances commercial, co-operative and regional rural banks for lending to on farm and non-farm activities. This includes farm activities like minor irrigation, animal husbandry, farm mechanization, forestry, fisheries, land development, horticulture, plantation and medicinal crops and non-farm like rural industries, artisans, handicrafts, handlooms, rural housing, rural tourism and agro processing. Refinance is provided by NABARD for both long term investment credit as well as short term production credit for crop loans and working capital for non-farm activities. A nationwide network of 28 regional offices at the state capitals, a sub-office at Port Blair and 391 district development offices are at hand to cater to this awesome task.
Clearly NABARD's benevolent hand has been silently at work in supporting rural resurgence in various ways and its stakes are quite enormous. A glance at the figures will give a fair idea. It has channelised a
whopping Rs. 1,21,000 crore under its investment credit programme and RIDF since inception, which includes Rs. 8795 crore disbursed during 2006-07. Under production credit the Bank sanctioned limits of Rs. 12570 crore during 2006-07. NABARD has effectively brought in a number of innovations in the rural credit domains. To quote a few: Formation and Linkage of Self Help Groups, Farmers Clubs, Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Watershed Development, Kisan Credit Card, District Rural Industries Project, Cluster Development Programme and Rural Innovation Fund. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Self Help Groups (SHGs) Farmers Clubs Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) Watershed Development Tribal Development and WADI approach Women and Development District Rural Industries Project (DRIP) Rural Entrepreneurship Development Programme (REDP) Rural Marketing Revival of Short-Term Rural Co-operative Structure (STCCS) Rural Innovation Fund NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) Co-Financing
1. Self Help Groups (SHGs): One of the major success stories of NABARD, the SHG Bank linkage programme started as a pilot project in 1992 with 500 SHGs. SHGs comprise homogeneous groups of poor people who have voluntarily come together mainly with the idea of overcoming their common problems of low social and economic status. SHGs enable the poor, especially the women from the poor households, to collectively identify, prioritize and tackle the problems they face in their socio economic environment. By pooling their meager resources and using them for lending among themselves, they develop the habit of thrift and the skill of credit appraisal, before getting mature enough to access a loan from banks, which is called credit linkage. Starting with small loans for consumption they soon graduate to bigger loans for setting up of income generating micro-enterprises. Today, NABARD's SHG Bank Linkage Programme boasts of over 26 lakh SHGs and 3.9 crore households influencing the lives of over 16 crore poor population. During the year 2006-07 alone, as many as 458591 groups were credit linked. 2. Farmers Clubs A popular intervention among both farmers and Bankers, the farmers Club concept was envisaged as an experiment in social engineering, a forum to bring the rural banker and the borrower closer and to propagate the principles of development through credit. Farmers Club is an informal group of 15-20
farmers, one per village, which acts as a medium for accessing and disseminating awareness of modern methods of farming and technological advancements in agriculture in its area. Financial support is provided by NABARD for opening and maintenance of Clubs as well as for organizing training programmes in the respective villages. With corporates and food chains looking for supply chain linkages of farm produce, Farmers Clubs may have an important role to play in joint production and marketing of farm produce. As on 31 March 2007 , there were Farmers Clubs in 534 districts covering 48763 villages. 3. Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF): Deficient Rural infrastructure hinders both social and economic development. Economists have explicitly emphasized on the direct correlation between the index of infrastructure development and rural development. NABARD's support to State Governments through RIDF since 1995-96 has brought about a sea change in the shape of upgraded infrastructure in rural areas. Rural roads and bridges under RIDF have improved market access to farmers; check dams and irrigation structures have augmented their water resources. Even drinking water projects and health centres have been supported under the Fund. NABARD so far has sanctioned Rs. 61539 crore for 2,44,025 projects under the Fund. A cumulative position of sector-wise sanctions as on 31 st March 2007 : Irrigation: Rs. 20637 crore, Rural connectivity: Rs. 26935 crore for rural road network and bridges, Power: Rs. 1434 crore Social Sector: Rs. 6988 crore Others: Rs. 5547 crore. A separate window has been created for rural connectivity with villages of population less than 500, with a corpus of Rs. 4,000 crore to support the Bharat Nirman project. 4. Watershed Development: In a comprehensive effort to enhance productivity of dryland through conserving soil, rainwater and irrigation, NABARD embarked on perfecting its experiments in creating a sustainable cost effective solution to the water harvesting techniques in rural areas. Building on its experience with the KFW funded watershed development programme in Maharashtra , NABARD established a Watershed Development Fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 200 crore in 1999-2000 which now stands at Rs. 602.76 crore. The programme is now being replicated in 124 districts of 14 States.
5. Tribal Development and WADI approach : With over 8% of the population comprising tribals largely dependent on forests, livestock and agriculture, NABARD found a holistic approach by addressing production, processing and marketing of the produce with WADI as the core of the programme. WADI (small orchard) was found to be an effective tool for arresting migration of tribals from their native habitat. The WADI model evolved out of concerted efforts made in association with Bhartiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF). The project also envisages other development interventions like environment, gender and health. Having completed 10 years in Gujarat and 5 years in Maharashtra , the programme has touched 275111 families in 410 villages. 6. Women and Development
Women constitute one third of the labour force. In order to give focus to women in various development activities and increase their access to Bank credit, schemes like Assistance to Rural women in Non-farm Development (ARWIND), Assistance for Marketing of Non- Farm Products of Rural Women (MAHIMA), Development of Women through Area Programme (DEWTA) have been designed to provide exclusive support to women in rural areas. 7. District Rural Industries Project (DRIP): NABARD launched DRIP, an integrated area-based credit intensification programme, in collaboration with Government, banks and other development agencies with district specific focus. It was introduced in 1993-94 with the objective of creating sustainable employment opportunities in 106 districts all over the country. 8. Rural Entrepreneurship Development Programme (REDP): In order to generate employment in rural areas, it was felt necessary to develop the entrepreneurial skills of the rural youth. REDP is a promotional programme supported by NABARD to motivate and train educated unemployed rural youth, to set up their own enterprises. So far, 2.32 lakh persons have been trained under the programme under 7792 REDPs. 9. Rural Marketing: A number of marketing interventions have been made for marketing of rural non-farm products since marketing is a key factor in the sustainability of any such endeavour. With the financial support of NABARD under its promotional programmes like Rural Haats, Rural Marts, participation in fairs, exhibitions and marketing melas, rural artisans and entrepreneurs can get a larger market for their produce and showcase their talent to urban and upcountry markets. 10. Revival of Short-Term Rural Co-operative Structure (STCCS) NABARD is the implementing agency for the Revival package for the STCCS which mean the State Coop. Banks, District Coop. Banks and the Primary Agricultural Coop. Societies. (PACS). The revival package has been approved by the Govt. of India based on the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee. NABARD has had dialogues with State Govts. and so far 10 states have executed MOU with GoI and NABARD. Apart from being on the national, state and district level implementing committees, NABARD has designed guidelines and training manuals for the special audit of PACS under the Package. 11. Rural Innovation Fund: In association with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), NABARD has constituted the “NABARD SDC Rural Innovation Fund (RIF)” to support innovative projects in Farm, Non-Farm and MicroFinance Sectors leading to creation of livelihood opportunities for the poor. Government and NonGovernment Institutions, corporate bodies, financial institutions and individuals can avail funding support for activities involved in development of new products, processes, prototypes, technology etc. which have the poor in their focus.
12. NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) NABCONS is a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD, which has established itself as a dependable and professional consultancy services provider in agriculture and allied activities. As on 31 March 2007 , it has cumulatively contracted 487 national and international assignments involving consultancy fee of Rs.25.49 crores. 13. Co-Financing It has been the experience that Banks are wary of taking credit risk of financing high tech/large scale/ export oriented agricultural projects or those involving sunrise technologies. To instill confidence in banks and ensure credit flow to such projects, NABARD has entered into agreements for co-financing with 14 commercial banks. During 2006-07, seven projects were sanctioned with bank loan of Rs. 145.03 crore and NABARD's share of Rs. 72.42 crore. Floriculture, organic farming, milk processing, ethanol production and agro processing are among the projects sanctioned so far.
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doc_465981065.docx
Explaining NABARD is set up as an apex Development Bank with a mandate for facilitating credit flow for promotion and development of agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts.
NABARD (NATIONAL BANK FOR AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT)
Introduction
NABARD is set up as an apex Development Bank with a mandate for facilitating credit flow for promotion and development of agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts. It also has the mandate to support all other allied economic activities in rural areas, promote integrated and sustainable rural development and secure prosperity of rural areas. In discharging its role as a facilitator for rural prosperity NABARD is entrusted with:1. 2. 3. Providing refinance to lending institutions in rural areas Bringing about or promoting institutional development and Evaluating, monitoring and inspecting the client banks Besides this pivotal role, NABARD also: •Acts as a coordinator in the operations of rural credit institutions •Extends assistance to the government, the Reserve Bank of India and other organizations in matters relating to rural development •Offers training and research facilities for banks, cooperatives and organizations working in the field of rural development •Helps the state governments in reaching their targets of providing assistance to eligible institutions in agriculture and rural development •Acts as regulator for cooperative banks and RRBs •Extends assistance to the government, the Reserve Bank of India and other organizations in matters relating to rural development •Offers training and research facilities for banks, cooperatives and organizations working in the field of rural development •Helps the state governments in reaching their targets of providing assistance to eligible institutions in agriculture and rural development •Acts as regulator for cooperative banks and RRBs
Some of the milestones in NABARD's activities are:
•Total production credit disbursed at end March 2011 was 34196 crore. •Refinance disbursement under Investment Credit to commercial banks, state cooperative banks, state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks, RRBs and other eligible financial institutions during 2010-11 aggregated 13485.87 crore. • Through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) 12060.04 crores were disbursed during 2010-11. A cumulative amount of 121488.40 crore has been sanctioned for 444162 projects as on 31 March 2011 covering irrigation, rural roads and bridges, health and education, soil conservation, drinking water schemes, flood protection, forest management etc. •Under Watershed Development Fund which has a balance of 579 projects in districts of 14 states have benefited. 1847.69 crore as on 31 March 2011,
•Farmers now enjoy hassle free access to credit and security through 1009.30 lakh Kisan Credit Cards that have been issued through a vast rural banking network. During 2010-11, 72.6 lakh KCC were issued by banks with a sanctioned limit of 43370 crore. •Under the Farmers' Club Programme, during the year 21903 clubs were launched, taking the total to 76708 clubs as on 31 March 2011 helping farmers get access to credit, technology and extension services. •Village Development Programme (VDP) is being implemented in 801 villages across 25 states. •Under Tribal Development Fund, cumulative sanction amounted to 917.60 crore for 317 projects covering 2.5 lakh families. During 2010-11 financial assistance of 373.97 crore was sanctioned for 126 projects benefiting 94,163 tribal families. •Under Farm Innovation and Promotion Fund (FIPF), cumulatively 123 projects in various states, involving financial support of 11.65 crore were sanctioned as on 31 March 2011. •Farmers Technology Transfer Fund (FTTF) – 512 innovative projects in 27 states with grant assistance of 44.97 crore were sanctioned during 2010-11. •There were more than 69.53 lakh savings linked SHGs and more than 48.51 lakh credit linked SHGs covering 9.7 crore poor households as on 31 March 2011, under the microfinance programme.
Genesis and Historical Background
The Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development (CRAFICARD) set up by the RBI under the Chairmanship of Shri B Sivaraman in its report submitted to Governor, Reserve Bank of India on November 28, 1979 recommended the establishment of NABARD. The Parliament through the Act 61 of 81, approved its setting up. The Committee after reviewing the arrangements came to the conclusion that a new arrangement would be necessary at the national level for achieving the desired focus and thrust towards integration of credit activities in the context of the strategy for Integrated Rural Development. Against the backdrop of the massive credit needs of rural development and the need to uplift the weaker sections in the rural areas within a given time horizon the arrangement called for a separate institutional set-up. Similarly. The Reserve Bank had onerous responsibilities to discharge in respect of its many basic functions of central banking in monetary and credit regulations and was not therefore in a position to devote undivided attention to the operational details of the emerging complex credit problems. This paved the way for the establishment of NABARD. CRAFICARD also found it prudent to integrate short term, medium term and long-term credit structure for the agriculture sector by establishing a new bank. NABARD is the result of this recommendation. It was set up with an initial capital of Rs 100 crore, which was enhanced to Rs 2,000 crore, fully subscribed by the Government of India and the RBI.
Mission
Promoting sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development through effective credit support, related services, institution building and other innovative initiatives. In pursuing this mission, NABARD focuses its activities on:
Credit functions, involving preparation of potential-linked credit plans annually for all districts of the
country for identification of credit potential, monitoring the flow of ground level rural credit, issuing policy and operational guidelines to rural financing institutions and providing credit facilities to eligible institutions under various programmes.
Development functions, concerning reinforcement of the credit functions and making credit more
productive
Supervisory functions, ensuring the proper functioning of cooperative banks and regional rural banks
Credit functions
NABARD's credit functions cover planning, dispensation and monitoring of credit. This activity involves: • Framing policy and guidelines for rural financial institutions •Providing credit facilities to issuing organizations • Preparation of potential-linked credit plans annually for all districts for identification of credit potential • Monitoring the flow of ground level rural credit
Development and Promotional Functions
Credit is a critical factor in development of agriculture and rural sector as it enables investment in capital formation and technological upgradation. Hence strengthening of rural financial institutions, which deliver credit to the sector, has been identified by NABARD as a thrust area. Various initiatives have been taken to strengthen the cooperative credit structure and the regional rural banks, so that adequate and timely credit is made available to the needy. In order to reinforce the credit functions and to make credit more productive, NABARD has been undertaking a number of developmental and promotional activities such as:•Help cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks to prepare development actionsplans for themselves •Enter into MoU with state governments and cooperative banks specifying their respective obligations to improve the affairs of the banks in a stipulated timeframe •Help Regional Rural Banks and the sponsor banks to enter into MoUs specifying their respective obligations to improve the affairs of the Regional Rural Banks in a stipulated timeframe • Monitor implementation of development action plans of banks and fulfillment of obligations under MOUs •Provide financial assistance to cooperatives and Regional Rural Banks for establishment of technical, monitoring and evaluations cells •Provide organisation development intervention (ODI) through reputed training institutes like Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow www.birdindia.org.in, National Bank Staff College, Lucknow www.nbsc.in and College of Agriculture Banking, Pune, etc. •Provide financial support for the training institutes of cooperative banks •Provide training for senior and middle level executives of commercial banks, Regional Rural Banks and cooperative banks •Create awareness among the borrowers on ethics of repayment through Vikas Volunteer Vahini and Farmer’s clubs •Provide financial assistance to cooperative banks for building improved management information system, computerisation of operations and development of human resources
SUPERVISORY FUNCTIONS As an apex bank involved in refinancing credit needs of major financial institutions in the country engaged in offering financial assistance to agriculture and rural development operations and programmes, NABARD has been sharing with the Reserve Bank of India certain supervisory functions in respect of cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). As part of these functions, it • Undertakes inspection of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Cooperative Banks (other than urban/primary cooperative banks) under the provisions of Banking Regulation Act, 1949. • Undertakes inspection of State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs) and apex non-credit cooperative societies on a voluntary basis • Undertakes portfolio inspections, systems study, besides off-site surveillance of Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) • Provides recommendations to Reserve Bank of India on issue of licenses to Cooperative Banks, opening of new branches by State Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) • Administering Credit Monitoring Arrangements (CMA) in SCBs and CCBs. Core Functions NABARD has been entrusted with the statutory responsibility of conducting inspections of State Cooperative Banks (SCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) under the provisions of Section 35(6) of the Banking Regulation Act (BR Act), 1949. In addition, NABARD has also been conducting periodic inspections of state level cooperative institutions such as State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs), Apex Weavers Societies, Marketing Federations, etc., on a voluntary basis. Objectives of Inspection • To protect the interest of the present and future depositors • To ensure that the business conducted by these banks is in conformity with the provisions of the relevant Acts/Rules, regulations/Bye-Laws, etc • To ensure observance of rules, guidelines, etc., formulated and issued by NABARD/RBI/Government
• To examine the financial soundness of the banks
• To suggest ways and means for strengthening the institutions so as to enable them to play more efficient role in rural credit Instruments of Supervision • Periodic on-site inspection of SCBs, DCCBs, SCARDBs and RRBs and other Apex level Cooperative institutions • Supplementary Appraisal • Off-site Surveillance System ( OSS ) • Portfolio inspection/System study • Monitoring through returns including CMA and Frauds • Attending to complaints in respect of Cooperative Banks (excluding Urban Cooperative Banks) and RRBs Supervisory Strategy In the wake of the banking sector reforms, new set of international norms/practices were made applicable to Commercial Banks (CBs) to make them more competitive and sustainable in the changing scenario. The co-operative banks and RRBs were also to function in the general banking environment, emerging out of the financial sector reforms, introduced by the GOI/RBI. Accordingly, the prudential norms were extended to them in phases. While the capital adequacy norm has not yet been made applicable to these banks, the other prudential norms viz. income recognition, asset classification and provisioning, which were made applicable by RBI to the commercial banking sector had been extended to cover RRBs in 1995-96, SCBs and DCCBs in 1996-97 and by NABARD to SCARDBs in 1997-98. NABARD, through a concrete and time-bound supervision strategy, facilitate these banks to adjust to the new financial discipline so as to internalize prudential norms stipulated. Current Focus Under the revised strategy, a sharper focus of the NABARD’s inspection was given on the core areas of the functioning of banks pertaining to Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity, Systems and Compliance (CAMELSC). Thus, NABARD’s focus in its statutory ‘on-site’ inspections is on core assessments leaving the collateral appraisals to banks. The micro level aspects are to be taken care of by the banks themselves by way of internal inspections or by other agencies such as auditors. In this direction, through a series of workshops and meetings held with the Chief Executives and the Chief Auditors of cooperative banks, NABARD has been attempting to ensure that the other areas, particularly relating to the internal checks and controls, revenue and income realization by way of interest on loans
and advances, investments and other routine features of carrying out general banking transactions were suitably taken care of by the banks and their concurrent/statutory audit systems.
Off-site Surveillance As a part of the new strategy of supervision, a system of `Off-site Surveillance' has been introduced as a supplementary tool to the on-site inspection. Its objectives are to obtain and analyse critical data on a continuous basis, to identify areas of supervisory concern and to identify early warning signals and risky areas requiring further probe. The system basically envisages desk scrutiny of operations of cooperative banks and RRBs through a set of statutory and non-statutory returns. While the periodical statutory onsite inspections attempt an overall evaluation of the performance of the banks with a stipulated period, off-site surveillance envisages continuous supervision supplementing the on-site inspections with additional instruments of supervision. Board of Supervision (for SCBs, DCCBs and RRBs) Board of Supervision (for SCBs, DCCBs and RRBs) has been constituted by NABARD under Section 13(3) of NABARD Act, 1981 as an Internal Committee to the Board of Directors of NABARD. The broad powers and functions of the Board of Supervision are : • Giving directions and guidance in respect of policies and on matters relating to supervision and inspection, reviewing the inspection findings, suggesting appropriate measures • Reviewing the follow-up action taken by Department of Supervision (DoS) on matters of frauds and internal checks and control • Identifying the emerging supervisory issues in the functioning of cooperative banks/RRBs such as NPAs recovery, investment portfolio, credit monitoring system, management practices, frauds, etc. • Suggesting necessary follow-up measures • Recommending appropriate training for Inspecting Officers of NABARD for imparting necessary skills and knowledge • Suggest measures for strengthening of DoS • Recommend issue of directions by RBI • Oversee the quality of inspections carried out and the reports issued • Review the information generated through off-site surveillance and other supplementary vehicles, action taken thereon
• Undertake any other functions entrusted from time to time by the Board of Directors of NABARD The Board of Supervision reviews the financial position of Cooperative Banks and RRBs based on the inspections of these banks by NABARD. Based on the observations of BoS, authorities concerned are apprised of the weaknesses of the banks. Other Initiatives The day-to-day functioning of the supervised banks is being monitored through various statutory returns prescribed by the RBI/NABARD including OSS returns State level groups comprising RCS, Apex bank, Cooperation and Finance Department, State Government, Director of Audit and non-compliant banks have been constituted/convened for preparing/discussing suitable strategy for banks not complying with the provisions of Section 11(1) of BR Act, 1949 [ as applicable to Cooperative Societies (AACS)] and monitoring the progress of Action Plan prepared by them to facilitate recompliance with the provisions. Periodic discussions are held with the MD, Apex Banks, RCS, State Government, etc., to discuss the supervisory concerns. RO set up Suitable and adequate officers are placed in DoS units at RO level to undertake inspection of banks, issue inspection reports and take other follow up measures including review, monitoring of compliance, OSS, etc., in conformity with DoS, HO guidelines.
Objectives
NABARD was established in terms of the Preamble to the Act, "for providing credit for the promotion of agriculture, small scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas with a view to promoting IRDP and securing prosperity of rural areas and for matters connected therewith in incidental thereto". The main objectives of the NABARD as stated in the statement of objectives while placing the bill before the Lok Sabha were categorized as under : 1.The National Bank will be an apex organisation in respect of all matters relating to policy, planning operational aspects in the field of credit for promotion of Agriculture, Small Scale Industries, Cottage and Village Industries, Handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas. 2.The Bank will serve as a refinancing institution for institutional credit such as long-term, short-term for the promotion of activities in the rural areas.
3.The Bank will also provide direct lending to any institution as may approved by the Central Government. 4.The Bank will have organic links with the Reserve Bank and maintain a close link with in.
Major Activities
•Preparing of Potential Linked Credit Plans for identification of exploitable potentials under agriculture and other activities available for development through bank credit. •Refinancing banks for extending loans for investment and production purpose in rural areas. •Providing loans to State Government/Non Government Organizations (NGOs)/Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) for developing rural infrastructure. •Supporting credit innovations of Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and other non-formal agencies. •Extending formal banking services to the unreached rural poor by evolving a supplementary credit delivery strategy in a cost effective manner by promoting Self Help Groups (SHGs) •Promoting participatory watershed development for enhancing productivity and profitability of rainfed agriculture in a sustainable manner. • On-site inspection of cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and iff-site surveillance over health of cooperatives and RRBs.
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
Role and Functions
• NABARD is an apex institution accredited with all matters concerning policy, planning and operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas. •It is an apex refinancing agency for the institutions providing investment and production credit for promoting the various developmental activities in rural areas •It takes measures towards institution building for improving absorptive capacity of the credit delivery system, including monitoring, formulation of rehabilitation schemes, restructuring of credit institutions, training of personnel, etc. •It co-ordinates the rural financing activities of all the institutions engaged in developmental work at the field level and maintains liaison with Government of India, State Governments, Reserve Bank of India and other national level institutions concerned with policy formulation. •It prepares, on annual basis, rural credit plans for all districts in the country; these plans form the base for annual credit plans of all rural financial institutions •It undertakes monitoring and evaluation of projects refinanced by it. •It promotes research in the fields of rural banking, agriculture and rural development
NABARD and its Role in Training •National Bank Staff College, Lucknow
•National Bank Training Centre, Lucknow •Zonal Training Centre, Hyderabad •Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Mangalore •Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Bolpur •Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow The provisions of the Act as stated below very clearly indicate the nature and scope of the developmental mandate of the Bank and its role in training and capacity building with the underlying belief that the process of development cannot be accomplished by credit/refinance alone. Section 38 of the NABARD Act provides that the Bank shall: •maintain expert staff to study all problems relating to agriculture and rural development and be available for consultation to the Central Government, the Reserve Bank, the State Governments and the other institutions engaged in the field of rural development. •provide facilities for training, for dissemination of information and the promotion of research including the undertaking of studies, researches, techno-economic and other surveys in the field of rural banking, agriculture and rural development. •provide technical, legal, financial, marketing and administrative assistance to any person engaged in agriculture and rural development activities; •may provide consultancy services in the field of agriculture and rural development and other related matters in or outside India, on such terms and against such remuneration, as may be agreed upon; In this context, the role of training in NABARD and the role played by it for capacity building in client institutions, partner agencies and other developmental agencies is important. For maintaining 'Expert Staff', the bank needs to provide continuous exposure to its officers and staff for upscaling their knowledge and skills in core areas. However, in the initial years the Bank had recruited expert staff from various technical disciplines and created a separate cadre of officers. These officers were involved in formulating, appraising, monitoring and evaluating different agricultural projects implemented by different credit agencies.These officers, irrespective of their academic background, were imparted similar type of training as all other officers. Their placements and the regular job rotations helped in grooming them to take up assorted assignments, get involved in a variety of roles and functions including credit, developmental, promotional, supervisory and necessary support and information for decision making. The Bank also had access to their specialised skills which were utilised whenever needed. In pursuance of the Bank's mandate as stated in the Act, the Bank provides training facilities for the RFIs and agencies involved in rural development through BIRD and the two RTCs. With a view to broadbase
the training and capacity building efforts, the Bank encourages the RFIs to set up their own training systems and provides these training institutes the necessary support to conduct meaningful and quality training. Options and avenues for strengthening the training interventions at the client level are continuously examined so that the human resources in these institutions are developed to take on the challenges, reckon with the competition, improve customer service, expand outreach, develop suitable products and thereby contribute to rural development. As NABARD primarily functions through other agencies, the needs of the client institutions largely determine the knowledge and skill requirements of NABARD officers. NABARD endeavours to blend the experiences of client bank training with the training for NABARD officers so as to make training meaningful and relevant to their roles. Efforts are also made to blend the study findings with the outcome from training to periodically measure the overall impact of the investments made in the training efforts.
25 YEARS OF DEDICATION TO RURAL PROSPERITY
NABARD completed 25 years of its eventful and trailblazing existence on 12 July 2007. Established in 1982, by an Act of Parliament, NABARD's mandate was to provide focused and undivided attention to the development of rural India by facilitating credit flow for promotion of agriculture and rural non farm sector. Emphasizing this in no uncertain terms, its mission statement underscores NABARD's goal to "promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural prosperity through effective credit support, related services, institution development and other innovative initiatives". NABARD's functions can be classified into 4 major categories viz. Credit Planning, Financial Services, Promotion and Development, and Supervision. Under Credit Planning NABARD prepares Potential Linked Credit Plan (PLP) annually for each district of the country by assessing potential available in agriculture and rural sector. This serves as a guide for banks and Government agencies to prepare their own investment and credit plans in the district and state. Under its Financial services, it refinances commercial, co-operative and regional rural banks for lending to on farm and non-farm activities. This includes farm activities like minor irrigation, animal husbandry, farm mechanization, forestry, fisheries, land development, horticulture, plantation and medicinal crops and non-farm like rural industries, artisans, handicrafts, handlooms, rural housing, rural tourism and agro processing. Refinance is provided by NABARD for both long term investment credit as well as short term production credit for crop loans and working capital for non-farm activities. A nationwide network of 28 regional offices at the state capitals, a sub-office at Port Blair and 391 district development offices are at hand to cater to this awesome task.
Clearly NABARD's benevolent hand has been silently at work in supporting rural resurgence in various ways and its stakes are quite enormous. A glance at the figures will give a fair idea. It has channelised a
whopping Rs. 1,21,000 crore under its investment credit programme and RIDF since inception, which includes Rs. 8795 crore disbursed during 2006-07. Under production credit the Bank sanctioned limits of Rs. 12570 crore during 2006-07. NABARD has effectively brought in a number of innovations in the rural credit domains. To quote a few: Formation and Linkage of Self Help Groups, Farmers Clubs, Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Watershed Development, Kisan Credit Card, District Rural Industries Project, Cluster Development Programme and Rural Innovation Fund. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Self Help Groups (SHGs) Farmers Clubs Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) Watershed Development Tribal Development and WADI approach Women and Development District Rural Industries Project (DRIP) Rural Entrepreneurship Development Programme (REDP) Rural Marketing Revival of Short-Term Rural Co-operative Structure (STCCS) Rural Innovation Fund NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) Co-Financing
1. Self Help Groups (SHGs): One of the major success stories of NABARD, the SHG Bank linkage programme started as a pilot project in 1992 with 500 SHGs. SHGs comprise homogeneous groups of poor people who have voluntarily come together mainly with the idea of overcoming their common problems of low social and economic status. SHGs enable the poor, especially the women from the poor households, to collectively identify, prioritize and tackle the problems they face in their socio economic environment. By pooling their meager resources and using them for lending among themselves, they develop the habit of thrift and the skill of credit appraisal, before getting mature enough to access a loan from banks, which is called credit linkage. Starting with small loans for consumption they soon graduate to bigger loans for setting up of income generating micro-enterprises. Today, NABARD's SHG Bank Linkage Programme boasts of over 26 lakh SHGs and 3.9 crore households influencing the lives of over 16 crore poor population. During the year 2006-07 alone, as many as 458591 groups were credit linked. 2. Farmers Clubs A popular intervention among both farmers and Bankers, the farmers Club concept was envisaged as an experiment in social engineering, a forum to bring the rural banker and the borrower closer and to propagate the principles of development through credit. Farmers Club is an informal group of 15-20
farmers, one per village, which acts as a medium for accessing and disseminating awareness of modern methods of farming and technological advancements in agriculture in its area. Financial support is provided by NABARD for opening and maintenance of Clubs as well as for organizing training programmes in the respective villages. With corporates and food chains looking for supply chain linkages of farm produce, Farmers Clubs may have an important role to play in joint production and marketing of farm produce. As on 31 March 2007 , there were Farmers Clubs in 534 districts covering 48763 villages. 3. Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF): Deficient Rural infrastructure hinders both social and economic development. Economists have explicitly emphasized on the direct correlation between the index of infrastructure development and rural development. NABARD's support to State Governments through RIDF since 1995-96 has brought about a sea change in the shape of upgraded infrastructure in rural areas. Rural roads and bridges under RIDF have improved market access to farmers; check dams and irrigation structures have augmented their water resources. Even drinking water projects and health centres have been supported under the Fund. NABARD so far has sanctioned Rs. 61539 crore for 2,44,025 projects under the Fund. A cumulative position of sector-wise sanctions as on 31 st March 2007 : Irrigation: Rs. 20637 crore, Rural connectivity: Rs. 26935 crore for rural road network and bridges, Power: Rs. 1434 crore Social Sector: Rs. 6988 crore Others: Rs. 5547 crore. A separate window has been created for rural connectivity with villages of population less than 500, with a corpus of Rs. 4,000 crore to support the Bharat Nirman project. 4. Watershed Development: In a comprehensive effort to enhance productivity of dryland through conserving soil, rainwater and irrigation, NABARD embarked on perfecting its experiments in creating a sustainable cost effective solution to the water harvesting techniques in rural areas. Building on its experience with the KFW funded watershed development programme in Maharashtra , NABARD established a Watershed Development Fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 200 crore in 1999-2000 which now stands at Rs. 602.76 crore. The programme is now being replicated in 124 districts of 14 States.
5. Tribal Development and WADI approach : With over 8% of the population comprising tribals largely dependent on forests, livestock and agriculture, NABARD found a holistic approach by addressing production, processing and marketing of the produce with WADI as the core of the programme. WADI (small orchard) was found to be an effective tool for arresting migration of tribals from their native habitat. The WADI model evolved out of concerted efforts made in association with Bhartiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF). The project also envisages other development interventions like environment, gender and health. Having completed 10 years in Gujarat and 5 years in Maharashtra , the programme has touched 275111 families in 410 villages. 6. Women and Development
Women constitute one third of the labour force. In order to give focus to women in various development activities and increase their access to Bank credit, schemes like Assistance to Rural women in Non-farm Development (ARWIND), Assistance for Marketing of Non- Farm Products of Rural Women (MAHIMA), Development of Women through Area Programme (DEWTA) have been designed to provide exclusive support to women in rural areas. 7. District Rural Industries Project (DRIP): NABARD launched DRIP, an integrated area-based credit intensification programme, in collaboration with Government, banks and other development agencies with district specific focus. It was introduced in 1993-94 with the objective of creating sustainable employment opportunities in 106 districts all over the country. 8. Rural Entrepreneurship Development Programme (REDP): In order to generate employment in rural areas, it was felt necessary to develop the entrepreneurial skills of the rural youth. REDP is a promotional programme supported by NABARD to motivate and train educated unemployed rural youth, to set up their own enterprises. So far, 2.32 lakh persons have been trained under the programme under 7792 REDPs. 9. Rural Marketing: A number of marketing interventions have been made for marketing of rural non-farm products since marketing is a key factor in the sustainability of any such endeavour. With the financial support of NABARD under its promotional programmes like Rural Haats, Rural Marts, participation in fairs, exhibitions and marketing melas, rural artisans and entrepreneurs can get a larger market for their produce and showcase their talent to urban and upcountry markets. 10. Revival of Short-Term Rural Co-operative Structure (STCCS) NABARD is the implementing agency for the Revival package for the STCCS which mean the State Coop. Banks, District Coop. Banks and the Primary Agricultural Coop. Societies. (PACS). The revival package has been approved by the Govt. of India based on the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee. NABARD has had dialogues with State Govts. and so far 10 states have executed MOU with GoI and NABARD. Apart from being on the national, state and district level implementing committees, NABARD has designed guidelines and training manuals for the special audit of PACS under the Package. 11. Rural Innovation Fund: In association with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), NABARD has constituted the “NABARD SDC Rural Innovation Fund (RIF)” to support innovative projects in Farm, Non-Farm and MicroFinance Sectors leading to creation of livelihood opportunities for the poor. Government and NonGovernment Institutions, corporate bodies, financial institutions and individuals can avail funding support for activities involved in development of new products, processes, prototypes, technology etc. which have the poor in their focus.
12. NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) NABCONS is a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD, which has established itself as a dependable and professional consultancy services provider in agriculture and allied activities. As on 31 March 2007 , it has cumulatively contracted 487 national and international assignments involving consultancy fee of Rs.25.49 crores. 13. Co-Financing It has been the experience that Banks are wary of taking credit risk of financing high tech/large scale/ export oriented agricultural projects or those involving sunrise technologies. To instill confidence in banks and ensure credit flow to such projects, NABARD has entered into agreements for co-financing with 14 commercial banks. During 2006-07, seven projects were sanctioned with bank loan of Rs. 145.03 crore and NABARD's share of Rs. 72.42 crore. Floriculture, organic farming, milk processing, ethanol production and agro processing are among the projects sanctioned so far.
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