PLP 2016-17 Kokrajhar District EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I. The criticality of capital formation ‘in’ and ‘for’ agriculture need not be overemphasized. However, the recent declining trend in investment credit vis-à-vis crop loan has serious implications for sustaining capital formation. The theme selected for the PLP 2015-16 is “Accelerating the pace of capital formation in agriculture and allied sector”. The PLP maps the potential in priority sectors which could be exploited with institutional credit within a specified time frame. PLP are intended to provide a meaningful direction to the flow of credit to different sectors at the ground level taking into account all relevant factors. The various linkage and other support required to be provided by line departments to facilitate credit flow as planned are also listed in the PLP. II. Kokrajhar district is one of the four districts of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD). The district comprises of three sub-divisions namely Kokrajhar, Gossaigaon and Parbatjora; eleven development blocks of which five are full blocks namely – Kokrajhar, Dotoma, Gossaigaon, Kochugaon and Debitola and six are partial blocks which were earlier parts of Dhubri district namely Hatidura, Rupsi, Mohamaya, Chapar Salkosha, Golakganj and Bilasipara. The BTAD authority is in charge of all the developmental activities including agriculture and rural development. The district Headquarter at Kokrajhar is also the Headquarters of the BTAD. The BTAD came into existence in the year 2005. The visible effects are noticed in the rapid urbanization of the BTAD headquarters – Kokrajhar. The total area of Kokrajhar district 312900 ha with a total population of 898999. It is situated at the foothills and shares an international boundary with Bhutan at its north. The district shares its boundary with the districts of Chirang and Bongaigaon on the east and Dhubri at its south; and with West Bengal on its west. The main rivers flowing from North to south are Sankosh, Saralbhanga, Gaurang and Champamati. About 49% of the landscape is covered by Reserved Forest Areas and the rest are human habitation and cultivable / fallow land/ beels. Traditionally, the main sources of income are forest products and paddy cultivated mainly through traditional practices. The Bodo cultivators traditionally practiced canal irrigation system which gave very high yield. Other traditional economic activities are rearing of pigs, eri silk production and weaving. There exists vast scope of developing and expanding these activities through technology support, marketing and timely credit. This may be facilitated through supporting micro/ small/ medium units as individuals involved in these activities have small to medium land holdings. III. Sectoral trends in credit flow for last three years and specifically the performance under the District Credit Plan (2014-15). The disbursement of bank credit towards crop loan in the district in the last three years is Rs. 1098.28 lakh in 2014-15, Rs. 1829.29 lakh in 2013-14 and Rs 1141.46 lakh in 2012-13 respectively. While amount of loan purveyed by banks in the agriculture sector inclusive of both crop and term loans in the last three years remained at Rs. 1939.11 lakh in 2014-15, Rs. 2239.34 lakh in 2013-14 and Rs. 1553.87 lakh during 2012-13. The amount of bank credit purveyed in the MSME Sector in the district during 2013-14 since 2011-12 is Rs. 1412.47 lakh in 2014-15, Rs. 740.98 lakh in 2013-14 and Rs. 487.42 lakh during 2012-13. The amount of bank loan purveyed by various branches in the district in the Other Priority Sector remained at Rs. 1138.86, Rs. 1111.07 lakh, and Rs. 715.63 during 2014-15, 2013- 14 and 2012-13 respectively. Although the district has shown marginal increase in the disbursement of credit in the last three years; performance of credit flow in priority sector has largely remained much short of the District Credit Plan targets and the district falls in the category of below the required 60% CD Ratio. Performance of achievement in priority sector against District Credit Plan ranges at 30.66 %, 33.87% and 28% during 2014-15, 2013-14 and 2012-13 respectively. IV. The total projected credit flow during the Financial Year 2016-17 in the district is Rs. 21701.43 lakh which is 22.24 % more than the PLP projections for the Financial Year 2015-16 and 17.41% more than the ACP target for the Financial Year 2015-16. The broad sector wise breakup of the above projections as per the latest Priority Sector Lending guidelines are 55.62% for Crop 1 PLP 2016-17 Kokrajhar District Production, Marketing and Food security, 17.48% for Agri-term credit, 2.09% for Agri Infrastructure, 1.62% for Ancillary Activities, 10.73% for the MSME sector, 0.29% for Export Credit, 0.37% for Education, 7.52% for Housing, 0.19% renewable Energy, 2.54% for Others and Food and Agro Processing and 1.54% for Social Infrastructure. The Base PLP projection (2012-17) for the year 2016-17 was estimated at 20036.20 lakh. However it is expecting that there will be increase in cost of various agriculture inputs and labour cost, fuel price hikes, certain factors like forecast of normal rainfall, change in government subsidy support available and general trend of disbursement of credit. Accordingly, the revised PLP projections for 2016-17 is estimated at 21701.43 lakh. V. Rural Infrastructure The District administration / implementing departments may Identify critical projects in the agricultural infrastructure sector in consultation with stakeholders and create a shelf of projects. Further in respect of sanctioned projects, close monitoring is needed to avoid delay in implementation. Community owned groundwater recharge structures, water tanks are some of the critical activities for development of the agriculture sector. It has been observed that lack of proper maintenance continues to be a major issue especially for the new infrastructure created out of RIDF like roads, veterinary infrastructure etc which could be addressed by creation of a separate corpus fund for RIDF assisted projects. VI. Financial Inclusion / Micro-Finance The district has 13 banks with a network of 38 branches. Another 8 bank branches located in Dhubri district provide banking services to 200 villages which earlier formed a part of Dhubri prior to the formation of BTAD. The district has the advantage of having a Regional Office of the AGVB. As on 31 March 2015, 10 branches have 41 BCs under them providing banking services to more than hundred villages. Kochugaon Development Block identified as an Intensive block has been implementing the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) with a cumulative number of SHGs estimated at 2153 groups. The district is also among 150 districts in the country implementing the Women Self Help Group Scheme (WSHG). This project is an attempt at having NGO-SHPI to work not merely as an SHPI for promoting and enabling credit linkage of these groups with the banks, but also serving as a banking/ business facilitator, tracking, monitoring these groups and also being responsible for loan repayments. This approach is expected to facilitate sustained financial inclusion through bank loan, promote livelihood development of women and deliver social development programmes for women through SHGs. VII. Area Based Schemes: An effective approach to promote holistic development could be to adopt area based schemes/ initiatives including extension; post-harvest management; processing and marketing in consonance with comparative advantage of promotion of predominant and viable economic activities in the identified area. Our focus is to give thrust to the identified sector/activity by enhancing term loan disbursements through a banking plan. Predominant activities which could be considered for area based schemes in the district are – paddy – production and processing; animal husbandry – piggery, poultry, dairy and goatary ; sericulture – eri silk production and weaving Traditionally, the main sources of income are forest products and paddy cultivated mainly through traditional practices. Other traditional economic activities are rearing of pigs, eri silk production and weaving. There exists vast scope of developing and expanding these activities through technology support, marketing and timely credit. This may be facilitated through supporting micro/ small/ medium units as individuals involved in these activities have marginal to small land holdings. All the above activities have good demand in the local market as well as across the border in Bhutan. The district is home to the unique coloured eri silk which is found 2 PLP 2016-17 Kokrajhar District only in Kokrajhar. There is huge demand of this rare hued eri silk in the global community especially in European markets. VIII. Issues, Thrust areas The need for improved customer orientation especially in rural bank branches was felt necessary. Irrigation has come up as a major area of concern as rainfall pattern and seasonality is undergoing a tremendous change. With 75% of the net sown area being rainfed, farmers’ understanding of arrangements for timely and assured irrigation is the call of the day. Installation of water saving techniques such as drip and sprinkled systems are still distant in the district. These systems need to be encouraged in the district and will probably need to be supported with subsidy. Farmers are also being motivated to adopt crop species / technologies with lesser water requirement. Financing of Farm Ponds and Rain Water Harvesting structures also need to be taken up in all demonstration initiatives by the line departments. In the villages even today farmers use very less chemical fertilizer and the cultivation practices has largely remained organic. Promotion of balanced consumption of fertilizers by adoption of integrated nutrient management practices, popularization of the use of bio- fertilizers, vermi-compost are some of the thrust areas for the district.