MUMBAI:
In an attempt to encourage farmers to get connected with the services offered by the Government and Banks, Bank of Baroda recently conducted the 3rd edition of ‘Baroda Kisan Pakhwada’, a pan-India initiative for the farming community from 1 st October to 16 th October, 2020.
The objective of ‘Baroda Kisan Pakhwada’/Farmers’ Fortnight was to connect as many farmers as possible with the bank, and to make them more aware of the new schemes and to increase their knowledge on latest technologies introduced in agriculture. It was also intended to make farmers self-reliant in the present adverse scenario.
During the fortnight this year, Bank of Baroda conducted around 11000 events, including virtual choupals, Farmer Meets and Mega Kisan Melas and reached out to around 3 Lakh farmers across the country. In this famer outreach programme, over 5000 rural and semi urban branches participated and connected with individual farmers, while adhering to all the COVID guidelines issued by Government and local administration.
Special emphasis has been given to various new schemes released by the government under the self- reliant India campaign by the bank:
- Scheme for financing under Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF)
- Scheme for financing under Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund.
- Scheme for financing under PM formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (FME)
For the six-month period between April-September, net agriculture disbursement of the bank stands at Rs 23884.69 crore and YTD growth on Agriculture Outstanding is 6.65%. Between April to September, the bank had introduced five different special schemes on COVID-19 to enable farmers to mitigate the effects due to the pandemic situation and disbursed net amount of Rs 1645.96 crore to 166834 farmers under these schemes.
As part of the Kisan Pakhwada activities, the bank has signed the following MoUs:
- With NABARD to help the bank enhance the credit portfolio in respect of SHG/JLG, FPOS & watershed development projects
- With Mahindra & Mahindra (Tractor Division) for Tractor Finance business to support farmers to avail hassle free credit facilities for buying Tractors;
- With OEM M/s Gromax Agri Equipment Limited (GAEL), an entity of Mahindra group, to enable Bank of Baroda customers to get discount up to Rs. 1, 00,000/- on purchase of Tractors directly from the company outlets. Further, on purchase in other states (except Gujarat), a discount up to Rs 15000/- will be given by GAEL in the form of payment of 1st EMI for its 45 HP & 50 HP models.
Learning of Bank of Baroda’s initiatives towards the farming sector, the Bank received appreciation from the Chief Minister of State of Karnataka, B. S. Yediyurappa.
