Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

15-March-2011 16:46 IST

Setting up of Farmer’s Resource Centre in Karnataka

As per a direction from the Government of India, the State Level Banker’s Committee, Karnataka, coordinated with the banks in the State of Karnataka and the Small industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to establish Farmers Resource Centres. The objectives sought to be achieved by the Farmers Resource centres are as under:

• Design and implement suitable training programmes for farm households

• Practice sustainable agriculture, organic farming, live stock rearing, inland fisheries, apiary and other allied activities

• Adoption of appropriate technology such as Gobar Gas, Solar & renewable energy, storage technology & locally suited innovations

• Developing knowledge skills, developing entrepreneurial traits

• Promoting collective action, foster self help

• Facilitate formation of procedures collectives, cluster development, group enterprises

• Inculcate healthy banking habits, strong value system for repayment of loans, dissemination of services

• Financial inclusion

• Research, consultancy services, publication of journals, audio visuals, effective liaisoning and co-ordination between Panchayati Raj, State & Central Governments, and all institutions which further the progress and development of farming community.

Our Farmers Resource Centre (FRC) is being set up at Bagalkot in Karnataka as a trust by pooling resources from Banks in the State and developmental institutions viz. SIDBI and NABARD. The entry level activities have already commenced at the centre which is presently functioning from B.V.V. Sangha, Bagalkot. The training programmes will be started during March, 2011.

At present Government of Karnaktaka, NABARD, 10 Banks and B.V.V. Sangha, Bagalkot have jointly formed a Trust and contributed to the corpus. A portion of the corpus will be utilized for creating capital assets and infrastructure development of the centre and the interest earned on the remaining corpus fund will be utilized to meet revenue expenditure.

The total amount committed for the said Scheme is Rs. 8.85 crores and the amount actually contributed so far by individual sponsors/trustees is Rs.3.33 crores.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha today.

DSM/BY/GN

Farmer resource centre establishment mobilises bank and development-institution funding for training, technology adoption and financial inclusion. A Trust formed by the State Government, NABARD, ten banks and a local institution has been constituted to establish the Farmer's Resource Centre at Bagalkot; a portion of the corpus will finance capital assets and infrastructure while interest on the remaining corpus will be used to meet revenue expenditure, with entry-level activities underway and training programmes scheduled to start in March 2011.