The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has estimated that a total amount of ₹ 2.79 lakh crore can be lent towards priority sectors in the state of Punjab, in the coming financial year, i.e., 2025-26. Among the various priority sectors, namely, agriculture, MSME sector, education, export, housing, renewable energy and others, the potential for lending for agriculture sector has been estimated at approximately 43% of the total credit potential or ₹ 1.20 lakh crore.

The apex development bank of the nation has announced this lending potential in its State Focus Paper for Punjab for the year 2025-2026, which has been launched as part of a State Credit Seminar held in Chandigarh today, February 28, 2025. The State Focus Paper for Punjab is brought out by NABARD each year, to facilitate credit planning and accelerate credit growth. The State Credit Seminar has been held to deliberate upon various issues affecting flow of credit to priority sector and to get stakeholder feedback.

The State Focus Paper for Punjab for the year 2025-2026 can be found here. The executive summary of the Paper can be found here.

Addressing the seminar participants including officials of the state government and the banking fraternity, Chief General Manager, NABARD Punjab Regional Office, Shri Raghunath B stated that credit is the engine of growth and that as a development finance institution, NABARD plays an important role in fuelling growth. He told that the bank aims to be able to provide institutional financial services to even the smallest actor of the economy. To this end, he sought the active cooperation of all stakeholders, so that the credit absorption potential of the state of Punjab is enhanced, thereby contributing to economic development as well.

The CGM explained the process of preparation of Potential Linked Credit Plans at the level of each district and how these have culminated in the form of the State Focus Paper (SFP) at the state level. The plan for the state has been made in a consultative fashion, adopting a bottom-up approach, he added.

General Manager, RBI, Smt. Varsha Bajpayee advocated diversification of crops, along with water conservation, as the pathway towards sustainable development of agriculture in Punjab. She said that the number of bank branches per population is higher for Punjab, as compared to the national average. While appreciating the banking sector of the state for their credit disbursements, she said that agriculture is one sector which continues to need a lot of thrust.

Recalling that the RBI’s Financial Literacy Week celebration is underway, the GM, RBI emphasized on the need for financial awareness and financial literacy, especially among women. She also expressed the need of digitization of land records so that everybody is given access to land records.

DGM, State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), Punjab Shri R.K. Meena informed the house about the banking profile of the state, noting how the performance of the state is better than the national average in terms of various key indicators such as Credit Deposit Ratio. He also assured dovetailing of potential identified by NABARD with the Annual Credit Plan prepared by SLBC.

A booklet on NABARD’s initiatives in Punjab, titled “NABARD in Punjab 2024” was also released on the occasion. The booklet can be found here.

General Manager, NABARD Haryana, Smt. K S Maya Devi; General Manager, NABARD Punjab Regional Office, Shri Vinod Kumar Arya, and representatives from line departments, banks and  agriculture universities participated in the State Credit Seminar.

A presentation on the State Focus Paper was given by District Development Manager, Shri Manjeet and District Development Manager Shri Mohit of NABARD.

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PIB CHANDIGARH | Dheep

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