Target of ₹ 8.5 Lakh Crore of Agricultural Credit

The Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley presenting the Union Budget 2015-16 here today, supported the agriculture sector with the help of effective and hassle-free agriculture credit, with a special focus on small and marginal farmers, Shri Jaitley proposed the Budget allocation of ₹ 25,000 crore in 2015-16 to the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) set up in NABARD; ₹ 15,000 crore for Long Term Rural Credit Fund; ₹ 45,000 crore for Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit Refinance Fund; and ₹ 15,000 crore for Short Term RRB Refinance Fund.

 Shri Jaitley said that “Farm credit underpins the efforts of our hard-working farmers, therefore an ambitious target of ₹ 8.5 lakh crore of credit during the year 2015-16 is set up, which the Minister was sure that the banks would surpass.

Agricultural credit target expanded to bolster rural refinance funds and ease access to credit for small and marginal farmers. The Budget sets a national agricultural credit target for the year and earmarks specific allocations to four rural credit facilities-the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund corpus, a Long Term Rural Credit Fund, a Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit Refinance Fund, and a Short Term Regional Rural Bank refinance fund-to strengthen short and long term lending capacity and channel refinance support to cooperative and regional rural banks serving small and marginal farmers.