New Delhi: The Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Shri Amit Shah attended the National Conference of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) as the Chief Guest, in New Delhi today. On this occasion, the Union Minister of State for Cooperation and North Eastern Affairs Shri B.L. Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, President of NCUI and Chairman of IFFCO Shri Dileep Sanghani, President of International Cooperative Alliance – Asia-Pacific Region and Chairman of KRIBHCO Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav and many other dignitaries were present.
On this occasion, the country’s first Union Minister of Cooperation said the dimension of cooperatives is very important for agricultural development and without this we cannot fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ income. The history of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks in India is almost nine decades old. Agricultural credit has two pillars, short term and long term. Before 1920, the agricultural sector was completely based on aerial farming, when rains came, there was a good harvest. In the 1920s, the introduction of long-term loans to the farmer began, which led to the realization of the farmer’s dream of creating infrastructure for agriculture in his farm. Only and only the Agriculture and Rural Development Banks worked to change the country’s agriculture from being luck based to becoming labour based. At that time, this dimension of the cooperative sector made a major start in the direction of making the farmer self-reliant. Shri Shah said that if we look at this journey of the last 90 years, then we see that we have not been able to reach the bottom most level of the agriculture and farming system. He said there are many obstacles but unless and until long-term financing is not increased, agricultural development is not possible according to the vision of the Prime Minister. There are many large States where banks have collapsed and this aspect also needs to be considered. Diverting surplus funds towards non-agricultural use does not serve the purpose. The objectives of NABARD are fulfilled only when all available money is spent on rural development and agriculture. But this is not possible unless we promote long term finance, infrastructure and micro-irrigation in agriculture.