National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

NABARD stands for “National bank of Agriculture and Rural Development”. It is a non -bank statutory financial organization.

It was set up on 12 July 1982 under an Act of Parliament as a central or apex institution for financing agriculture and rural sector (small scale industries, cottage, and village industries, handicrafts, etc.) with the paid-up capital of ₹ 100 crores.

There is an equal contribution of the Government of India and RBI in NABARD.

Over the years NABARD has been pushing for development in the credit schemes for rural populations to meet their new credit requirements.

The Structure of NABARD comprises of Board of Directors, Chairman, Managing Director, 2 Executive Director.

They All look after 26 Head Office Department, 28 Regional Offices, 6 Training Establishment.

There are 391 District Development Offices and one Sub Office Special Cell under the Regional Offices.

Role of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD):

• To act as a regulator of Cooperative Banks and RRBs.
• To act as coordinator in operational of Rural Credit Institution.
• It prepares rural credit plans, annually, for all districts in the country.
• To assists the government, RBI, and other organizations in a matter relating to rural development.
• It has been associating with the implementation of the many projects from Word Bank and International Funds for Agriculture Development. (IFDA)
• It offers training and research facility for banks, cooperatives, and other organizations working in a rural field.

Functions of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD):

• Framing policy and guidelines for the rural financial institution.

• Providing credit facilities for issuing organizations.

• Monitoring the flow of ground-level rural credit.

• It provides short term and medium-term loans to RRBs (Regional Rural Bank), CCBs (Central Cooperative Bank), and SCBs (State Cooperative Banks) and other institutions involve in Agriculture and rural development.

• It also provides long term loans to the Agriculture and allied activities, small scale industries, handicrafts, and other non-form sectors.

• NABARD directly finance the warehouses, cold storage, and cold chain infrastructures.

• It will also monitor the implementation of such plans and track their progress.

• To help Cooperative banks and other rural banks to prepare their action plan.

• To monitors the implementation of the development action plan of banks.

• It is helping in the development of farm and non-farm sectors by giving financial, technical, educational, and other supports.

• To provide financial support to training institutes of cooperative banks.

• To undertake an inspection of RRBs, Cooperative Banks, SCARDBs (State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks), and apex Non-Credit Cooperative Societies.

• It helps banks improve their MIS (Management Information Services) system, modernize their technology, develop human resources, etc.

• It helps Regional Rural Banks establish an agreement with State Governments and other Co-operative Banks and institutions.