NABARD Working Capital for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries

The NABARD Working Capital for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries scheme helps the farmers to meet their working capital requirements. Also, the scheme provides cash for the production requirements and for ready purchase of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides etc. The farmers are benefited by utilising the system. The new facility provides the short-term credit requirements for the rearing of animals, birds, fish, shrimp and capture of other aquatic organisms.

Features of the Scheme

The scheme provides the following features for the benefits of the farmers:

A Kisan Credit Card with a passbook is issued for eligible farmers.
The farmers are enabled with any number both manual and electronic transactions within the limit as rotation of cash credit facility.
The banks fix and allocate the credit limit as sub-limits to cover the short and medium terms.
The card validity is for 5 years and can be renewed on its expiry.
For the extraordinary performance of staff, an incentive with enhanced credit limit is provided to look after their fisheries breed and development.
In case of any natural disaster or pest attack, the scheme provides the leverage for the conversion and reschedule of the loan.
The scheme follows the rules and regulations of RBI in terms of security, margin, rate of interest.

Eligibility Criteria

The criteria involved in the selection process of the beneficiaries are as follows. The individual must own or lease any of the fisheries-related activities like:

Pond, lake or tank
Open water bodies
Raceway and hatchery
Rearing farms
Licensed fishing properties

The beneficiaries should be in any of the following professionals or Associations that are involved in the Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture:

Individual or association of Fish Farmers
Self-Help Groups
Joint Liability Groups
Women Groups
The Marine Fisheries who possess
Leased or registered Vessel or Boat
License or permission for fishing in bay and sea
An association with the State Fisheries and their allied activities
Poultry and Small Speculative involves with the following
Farmers, poultry farmers either an individual or joint borrower
Joint Liability Groups or Self-Help Groups, including tenant farmer of sheep/goats/pigs/poultry/birds/rabbit and having owned/rented/leased sheds.

Similar to the Poultry, the Dairy sectors comprise the eligibility quotient that includes the following:

Farmer and Dairy farmer who is either an individual or a joint borrower
Joint Liability Groups or Self-Help Groups, including tenant farmers who possess owned/rented/leased sheds

Rate of Interest

Rate of Interest is allied to the Base Rate and is left to the decision of the banks.

Amount of Financial Support

Every state appoints a District Level Technical Committee (DLTC) that forecasts Capital Limit to extend the financial support based on farmer’s land and cattle availability.
The financial support is evaluated based on the cost incurred in the seed, feed, organic and inorganic fertilisers, harvesting and marketing charges, fuel/electricity charges, labour and lease rent.
Working capital includes the cost of fuel, ice, labouring charges, mooring/landing charges for captured fisheries.
For animal husbandry, the scale of finance is provided as a recurring cost towards feeding, veterinary aid, labour, water and electricity supply.
Fisheries and Animal Husbandry experts of the Government are members of the DLTC who give technical inputs for assessing the cash credit requirement.
Advanced entrepreneurs of livestock/fisheries sector include the DLTC for providing field level inputs while evaluating the working capital requirements.
- The maximum period for assessment of working capital requirement is the completion of one production cycle based on the cash flow statement.
- The Short-term credit limit is fixed for the first year to those who meet with the following conditions,
- The farming and cultivation carried out as per the proposed cropping pattern & scale of finance
- The credit limit is extended for the Post-harvest/household/consumption requirements.
- The limit allows the expenses incurred for the maintenance of farm assets, crop insurance, Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS) and Asset insurance.
- An additional limit of 10% is extended for the post-harvest requirements with an augmented amount of finance for the crop as per DLTC and the extent of area cultivated.
- The limit is extended up to 20% towards repairs and maintenance expenses of farm assets including the crop insurance, PAIS & asset insurance.
- The credit limit is augmented up to 10 % in every successive year until the fifth year.

Dual Type Smart Card

Under the scheme, a dual-type of Smart card is issued for the beneficiaries to serve the stated purpose.
The smart card type that stores all the necessary information regarding the farmer’s identity, assets, the land they hold, the amount of credit payable.
The debit card that can be swiped for cash at all the ATMs and Hand-held swiping machines.

Required Documents to Claim the Scheme

A Duly filled in application form
Any Identity proof that can be a Voter ID card or PAN card or Passport or Aadhaar card or driving license
Any Address proof that can be a Voter ID card or Passport or Aadhaar card or Driving license

Additional Rules and Regulations

According to the sanction terms, the withdrawal amount is based on the monthly cash flow, the value of the available stock and the deliverables.

The repayment is fixed based on the cash flow or the income generation pattern of the activity undertaken by the beneficiary.
- The monitoring of end-use of funds is done in line with other loans such as:
  - Organising the field trip by the branch officials for monitoring the progress of the project.
  - With the periodic review, regarding the facility, the banks will decide whether to continue or withdraw/scale down the facility based on the farmers.