Bhubaneswar, Jan 25 (IANS): The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has assessed a total credit requirement of Rs 1,10,735 crore for Odisha for the year 2021-22.

It emphasised on crop diversification, animal husbandry and fishery sector apart from greater thrust on enhancing credit flow to Self Help Groups (SHGs).

State Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari released the state focus paper at the State Credit Seminar for 2021-22 conducted on Monday.

C. Udayabhaskar, Chief General Manager, NABARD said that the credit projections for Odisha for 2021-22 is Rs 1,10,735 crore which is based on the potential assessed under various sectors and sub-sectors in all the agro-climatic zones of the state.

He solicited cooperation of state government banks and other stakeholders towards achieving the credit growth required to realise the potential identified under plan.

As per the state focus paper, the projected credit flow to priority sector for the year 2021-22 has been enhanced by 22.5 per cent from the year 2020-21.

The projection for credit to the agriculture sector was pegged at Rs 46460.40 crore which is 7.34 per cent more than the projection of the year 2020-21.

Keeping in view high credit growth in MSME sector with a potential to generate rapid employment in the post-Covid periods, a projection of Rs 41867.10 crore for credit to MSME sector has been made with a growth of 37.46 per cent over the previous year.

In order to improve flow of credit to SHGs, the projection for loan under the category has been kept at Rs 6295.77 crore which will also increase the average loan for SHGs.

The document assessed infrastructure available and requirement to stimulate credit growth. The document is also used as a referral document for planning infrastructure and growth in credit dispensation by all stakeholders.

Pujari congratulated NABARD for bringing out a well-researched document.

He congratulated the banking sector in advance towards achieving the priority sector lending target of Rs 1,00,000 crore for the financial year 2020-21.

He emphasised upon increasing the agriculture term loan finance in allied sector activities such as animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries leading to asset formation and diversification of the income basket of farmers.

He also advised RBI and all the bankers to increase their banking outreach in unbanked areas of the state in order to help the state government in effective implementation of various developmental programmes.