Corporation Bank will disburse around Rs 10,000 crore for the agriculture sector during the current financial year.
B. K. Srivastava, Executive Director, told Business Line here that, with this, the bank hopes to take agricultural lending to 13.5 per cent of its total credit portfolio during the fiscal.
Loans to farmers stood at Rs 9,956 crore at the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal, or 8.63 per cent of its total credit portfolio during the quarter.
To reach the Rs 10,000-crore target, the bank is planning to recruit more agriculture officers and to give focussed attention through agriculture business development centres.
Six centres
The bank has five agriculture business development centres, in Bangalore, Chennai, Vijayawada, Lucknow and Ludhiana. The sixth one would be opened in Jaipur soon, he said.
Each of these centres, with jurisdiction over certain states, should contribute around Rs 2,000 crore in terms of direct agriculture lending during the current financial year, he said.
Whatever new rural branches the bank opens will have a minimum of 400 KCC (Kisan Credit Card) accounts in each branch, and 200 KCC accounts in each new semi-urban branch. This will help the bank to expand direct agriculture lending, he said.
The bank has already recruited around 200 people as agricultural officers. A further 150 would be appointed soon, he said.
These officers would help the branch managers with mobilisation of accounts and appraisal of loan proposals, he added.