Union minister for agriculture and food, Sharad Pawar on Friday strongly emphasised the need for an amendment to the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard) Act.
He said it was precursor to direct financing other than refinance. Pawar infact indicated that Nabard should now get into this space of direct financing aggressively.
The amendment, therefore, becomes necessary for Nabard?s diversification. This will enable the bank to provide financial products for the rural cooperative sector other than short term and long term refinances, Pawar was speaking on the occasion of Nabard?s 25th anniversary here on Friday. Nabard would have to re-position itself and become pro-active in terms of networking resources, building up capabilities and partnering institutions in public private and voluntary sectors.
This is required to face the challenges of globalis ation and market oriented economic environment, Pawar said. Nabard hence will have a larger role in furthering development across rural India effectively. In order to increase the agriculture growth rate to 4%, Pawar said Nabard has to deploy credit and credit plus approaches in contributing to improved productivity.