State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Heritage Foods India Ltd to extend dairy loans.
“The objective of this collaboration is to help the poor by providing investment credit in agriculture,'' Ms Renu Challu, Managing Director, SBH, told newspersons here on Friday.
A maximum of Rs 5 lakh would be given as loan with a subsidy of 1.25 lakh from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, she said.
Mr Sambasiva Rao, President, Heritage Foods, said the company would identify the eligible beneficiaries and also help SBH in revering the loans.
“The farmers and others who are given loans to buy and raise cattle will also be supported by us by guaranteed buy-back of milk,'' he said.
SBH was expecting to generate a business of Rs 50-100 crore out of dairy loans which would fall under priority sector advances.
For the Hyderabad-based Heritage Foods, the collaboration there would give an assured supply of milk, according to Mr Rao.
The mismatch between demand and supply of milk and value-added dairy products was widening day by day at 6-8 per cent a year, he added.
The total milk production in the country stood at 110 million tonnes in 2010 which was at 40 million tonnes in mid-1980s.