Media Release
Mangaluru, Jul 7: “Farmers should adopt modern agricultural tools and farming practices in this changing environment with an innovative approach. Precision agriculture and use of drones have come a long way to lead modern agricultural practices. This helps to improve affordability of food, increase food supply and also ensure sustainability. Further, Food & Agriculture processing and Agri Infrastructure sectors play a vital role in modern day agriculture, especially for perishable produces. Banks have a job on hand to make ‘Conventional farmers into modern day Entrepreneurs’ and this transformation itself provides abundant lending opportunities,” said Mahabaleshwara M S, managing director & CEO of Karnataka Bank, while addressing the participants through virtual mode in the Agri Business Conference held by the Bank today at Mangaluru.
Speaking further Mahabaleshwara M S, said, “The need of the hour is to be updated of market information, be better prepared to face natural calamities and practise Hi-Tech Agriculture. For this, Banks should be proactive in extending necessary support to farmers by meeting their agri-credit needs. In line with our Transformation wave - 2.0 'KBL NxT', an advanced digital initiative KBL AgriNxt is also brought in. Bank is exploring the possible participation in emerging digital disruption in agriculture sector by having partnership/ tie ups with Agri. Fin-Tech Companies. Since inception, Karnataka Bank has been supporting the priority lending initiatives of GoI, focusing on agriculture. Karnataka Bank has tailor-made farmer friendly agricultural loan products which are regularly updated as per the market requirements.
"Agriculturists should effectively make use of the Bank’s agricultural loan products. Agriculture Field Officers (AFOs) of the Bank have an Karnataka Bank Ltd important role to play and they should be sensitive to understand the actual requirements/needs of agriculturists at the ground level which can go a long way for providing them timely credit," he said.
Balachandra Y V, chief operating officer, Gokuldas Pai, chief business officer, Ravichandran S, Vinaya Bhat P J, Nagaraja Rao B, general managers, Gopalakrishna Samaga B, deputy general manager have also addressed the participants in the conference.
Chandrashekar, deputy general manager proposed the vote of thanks.