NCDC sanctions Rs 10,162 crore funds till November this fiscal

NEW DELHI: The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has sanctioned financial assistance of Rs 10,162 crore this fiscal till November for various cooperative development programmes, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today.
A statutory body, NCDC has been implementing a central sector/corporation-sponsored scheme for providing financial assistance towards setting up of agro-based processing units.

While funds in the form of subsidy are provided by the central government, term loans are provided by NCDC under its schemes. Corporation Sponsored Schemes are exclusively funded by NCDC from its own resources.

“During current financial year 2016-17, the Corporation has sanctioned financial assistance of Rs 10,162 crore up to November 30, 2016,” Singh said while presiding over 80th meeting of General Council of NCDC.

The NCDC has achieved the target much before the fiscal year. Its target was Rs 6,000 crore for 2016-17 fiscal, he said in statement.

In the last fiscal, the Corporation disbursed more than 7,000 crore. Its recovery rate was 99.98 per cent.
“Primary Agriculture Cooperatives (PACS) and District Cooperative Bank can play important role starting from pre-harvest programmes like selection of crops and purchase of seeds, right up to harvesting of crops and marketing of produce etc. This will result in increase in farmers’ income,” he said.

In the meeting, the Minister told NCDC to sanction funds for hitherto less covered cooperative societies located in North East and those working in areas such as dairy, poultry, fisheries and women.

He also asked NCDC to take lead and organise a conference for women cooperators and provide training on making suitable proposals for accessing funds from the Corporation and other sources.

Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak was also present in the meeting of reconstituted General Council of NCDC. Around 22 new members have been nominated in the Council.

Source: ECONOMIC TIMES