NABARD Scheme

NABARD, or National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development, is a financial institution that chiefly works toward managing and providing credit and other financial assistance to the agricultural and rural sectors of the Indian economy, including providing loans for dairy farming.

NABARD scheme works majorly in three sectors:

1. Finance
2. Development
3. Supervising

The institute is responsible for the planning and operations related to the country’s agriculture and rural development, including arranging funds for the respective operations. The NABARD institution and scheme promote sustainable agriculture alongside rural development by enhancing technical revolution, industrial development and resources for financial and non-financial requirements.

Features of the Nabard Scheme

The institution not only focuses on the agricultural sector but also on holistic development in rural areas, such as cottage industries, small-scale industries, etc. It is responsible for supporting both agriculture and dairy farming. 

Some of the key features of the NABARD scheme are as follows:

1. It helps in funding and refinancing various developmental operations.
2. Is responsible for the construction and improvement of the infrastructure in rural areas.
3. Plans strategies at district levels for the respective sections.
4. Assists and guides banks and non-banking financial companies to achieve their credit targets for the year.
5. It helps in regulating the regional rural banks and also the cooperative banks.
6. It helps in introducing and strategising rural development projects.
7. It helps in executing rural development schemes that the government puts forward. 
8. Organises training programs which aid in training the handicraft artisans.
9. Is responsible for designing new projects for the development of rural areas.
10. It helps the banking sector achieve its targets.

Functions of the Nabard Scheme 

In the refinancing sector, NABARD’s work is related to the overall and consolidated development of rural infrastructure and existential conditions all over the country. 

Some of the main functions of this scheme are listed below:

1. It aims to coordinate and provide financial assistance to the operations directly related to the developments in agriculture.
2. It helps in credit lending and provides institutional support for improvising food parks and food packing technologies in select areas.
3. It also helps in credit lending and institutional support for the construction and maintenance of cold storage facilities and warehouses. 
4. It helps indirectly by providing short-term and long-term credit to borrowers and direct refinancing for cooperative institutions.
5. It helps in providing specialised facilities in the irrigation sector.
6. It also specialises in corollary for rural infrastructure by assisting marketing federations.
7. It helps in policy-making for rural financial institutions.

Financial initiatives of the Nabard Scheme

Some of the financial initiatives under the NABARD scheme are as follow:

Direct Finance

1. Loans for food parks and food processing units in designated food parks –
   1. It assists in the development of the food processing sector.
   2. It also helps in reducing the wastage of agricultural goods.
   3. It helps in creating new employment opportunities in rural India.
2. Loans to warehouses, cold chain infrastructure and cold storage –
   1. It helps in the construction of silos and warehouses.
   2. It also assists in constructing cold storage, bulk coolers, quick freezing units, etc.
   3. It aids in upgrading the marketing infrastructure facilities of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee.
   4. It helps in improvising the current storage infrastructure. 
3. Loans to marketing federations –
   1. It helps in marketing and obtaining agricultural commodities. 
   2. It helps in marketing and obtaining agricultural produce.
   3. It aids in collecting, processing and marketing milk in dairy farming.
   4. It is also responsible for supplying agricultural inputs.
4. Rural Development Infrastructure Development –
   1. As the name suggests, it aids in the infrastructural development of agriculture and related industries, social sections and rural connectivity. 
5. Direct refinance assistance to cooperative banks – 
   1. It provides financial assistance to cooperative banks to aid them in expanding their lendable resources. 
   2. It also helps in diversifying banks into various types of business operations. 
6. Support of producer organisations –
   1. It provides credit support like loans and grants for constructing capacity and linkages to markets.
   2. It helps the agencies that are eligible for conducting various workshops. 
7. NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA) –
   1. It aids in infrastructure construction in rural areas.
   2. It provides facilities like annuity-based offerings according to the borrower’s needs.
8. Financing and development of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) –
   1. PACS are registered cooperative societies that provide credit and other services to their members.
   2. This scheme provides aid for upgrading agro-storage centres and service centres, agro-processing centres, agri-marketing and transportation facilities.
9. Alternative investment funds –
   1. It assists to refinance and co-finance products of NABARD.
   2. It encourages entrepreneurs in the agricultural and rural development sectors. 
   3. It encourages investments in innovative activities for the rural and agricultural development sector.
   4. It assists units that cannot move further with their operations due to a lack of funds.
10. Long-Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) –
    1. This scheme helps fund and accelerate medium and major irrigation projects yet to be completed.

Refinance schemes

1. Short-term refinancing –

• This scheme involves providing loans and credit for the production of crops.
• This is to make sure that crop production is stable and that cash crops are available for export.

2. Long-term refinancing – 

• This scheme involves assisting farms and farm-related activities.

The Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme for dairy farm loans

Interested entrepreneurs who want to set up small dairy farms are assisted under this scheme. Some of the important objectives covered under this scheme involving dairy farms loans are-

1. Encourages calf-rearing and protection of good bearing stock.
2. Helps in setting up modern-day farms that provide organic farm milk.
3. Aids in uplifting the technology to handle milk production on a commercial scale.
4. Helps in creating self-employment opportunities for improving the quality of workers’ lives.
5. Assists the development of infrastructure for unorganised sectors.

Conclusion 

This scheme was established in 1982 during the beginning years of the technological revolution in the country. The significance of the scheme in assisting in meeting the changing needs of the agrarian sector has been deeply felt. A financial institution of national importance, NABARD operates schemes and works towards the progress of rural infrastructure. Indian agriculture needs extensive modernisation and development to improve rural incomes.