National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has revised its farm loan refinancing target to regional rural banks (RRBs) and cooperative banks for the fiscal by nearly 40% to Rs 1.10 lakh crore compared to loan target of up to Rs 80,000 crore earlier. The bank has taken this step due to good monsoon across the country and it has requested its parent, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the government to hike its borrowing limits to meet the target.
NABARD has already disbursed around Rs 25,000 crore towards refinancing midway through the Kharif (summer crop) season. During the last fiscal, in spite of bad rains, it had witnessed a growth in refinance to RRBs and cooperatives to Rs 65,000 crore from Rs 48,000 crore in the previous fiscal.
According to meteorological department data as of August 17, the states of Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand have had excess rainfalls this year, while it was normal for a majority of other states, including that of Punjab and Haryana. Bihar, Jharkhand and the Northeastern the states are the only ones which have witnessed deficient rainfall, but none of them are categorized as scanty by Met department.
