BARAMA, June 19 � In a bid to popularise the farmers� club concept and to sustain the activities of the clubs, an initiative has been taken by State Bank of India, Nalbari branch, under the leadership of Chief Manager Debojyoti Dutta for federating 12 farmers� clubs formed by the bank the previous year and operating in the Natun Dehar mouza cluster.
A meeting was held at Upendra Narayan LP School, Bonbhag Solmari LP School on June 16, where the chief manager in his address said that the federation will act as agents for diffusion of technological innovations, financial services including popularising micro-insurance products, imparting training and empowerment of farmers and rural women with the help of various agencies.
The federation must endeavour to undertake a host of activities by collaborating with universities, institutions and NGOs in the areas of processing value-addition and marketing to upscale their activities and to create sustainable business models for the farmers and the rural women.
The chief manager also said that by networking the farmers and the SHG members, dissemination of information will be faster, and knowing and understanding the people of the area will be easier for the bank. This will facilitate credit flow and smoothen the recovery processes.
A website of the federation will be created soon to link the federation with other such organisations operating nationally as well as in other countries for adoption of good agricultural practices, knowledge and experience sharing. More importantly, the federation must also act towards formation and nurturing of SHGs and freeing the village people from high interest-bearing loans given by the local money lenders.
Dutta also spoke about some of the bank�s schemes such as agricultural gold loan and micro-insurance products. Everyone in the meeting lauded the keen initiative taken by the State Bank of India and expressed confidence that the first and only such initiatives in the district will be a replicable model of farm enterprise set up by the farmers� clubs.
Tapan Dutta, DDM of NABARD, also assured to provide all necessary help and urged the members to capitalise on the opportunity and work towards a mutually beneficial relationship with the bank by bringing about financial discipline among the members.
