The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has projected a credit potential of over one-third of the total credit plan for priority sector in Jharkhand for 2024-25.

In contrast, the banks in the state that are supposed to grant farm loans have failed to achieve their stipulated target for priority sector lending for the agriculture sector.

This was revealed during the annual state credit seminar, organised by Nabard in Ranchi on Thursday, where the agricultural bank presented a state focus paper highlighting credit potential for priority sectors for 2024-25.

According to the focus paper released on the occasion, Rs 18,734.32 crore was earmarked as loan potential for the agriculture sector which accounts for 34.69 per cent of the total credit proposal of Rs 54,008.31 crore for priority sectors in the state.

“Jharkhand has failed to meet the stipulated 18 per cent priority sector lending for agriculture,” pointed out Manoj Kumar, the general manager of Bank of India who is also the convener of the state-level bankers’ committee.

He added that as many as 27 banks functioning in the state failed to achieve the target during the last fiscal (2022-23) while addressing the state credit seminar.

According to the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India, domestic banks are required to lend 18 per cent of the adjusted net banking credit to the agriculture sector but the achievement of the banks in this regard was only 15.19 per cent in Jharkhand.

Though some banks functioning in the state did well, most failed to achieve the target.

Among the achievers, Jharkhand Grameen Bank achieved 71 per cent while the Bank of India achieved 25 per cent. But the achievement of the State Bank of India stood at a mere 5.52 per cent.

Detailing the credit plan, Nabard chief general manager S. K. Jahagirdar further informed that credit potential for the MSME sector was projected at Rs 28,043.31, the highest that accounted for nearly 52 per cent of the total credit potential for priority sectors in the state.

Unlike previous years when the chief minister and finance minister would attend it, the state credit seminar this time looked gloomy, more because a new chief minister was yet to expand his cabinet and the state had no finance minister that day. The state’s finance secretary Prashant Kumar was the only prominent representative of the government who attended the event.