The HTML you provided contains a paragraph, followed by a div with the ID “content-body-68374754” and the itemprop “articleBody”, which contains an amp-position-observer, another paragraph with the text “GUWAHATI”, and several more paragraphs containing information about the agriculture sector in Assam.The HTML you provided contains a paragraph, followed by a div with the ID “content-body-68374754” and the itemprop “articleBody”, which contains an amp-position-observer, another paragraph with the text “GUWAHATI”, and several more paragraphs containing information about the agriculture sector in Assam. The amp-position-observer is used to track the user’s scroll position and trigger an action when the user scrolls to a certain point on the page. In this case, the action is to call the “seekTo” method on the “showdialog” object, passing in the percentage of the page that has been scrolled as an argument. The div with the ID “content-body-68374754” is likely the main content area of the page, and the paragraphs inside it contain the actual article content. The paragraphs contain information about the agriculture sector in Assam, including the challenges it faces due to the perception among bankers and financiers that farmers in the region have poor repayment capacity. The paragraphs also mention the efforts of the Associated Tea and Agro Management Services (ATMS) to revive the agriculture sector by improving access to banking services for farmers.
GUWAHATI
The agriculture sector in Assam has suffered as banks and financial institutions are yet to get over the “militancy hangover”, a representative of farmers’ associations in the northeast told the Centre.
The anti-outsider Assam agitation (1979-85) and two decades of extremism have created a negative perception among bankers and financiers about farmers’ repayment capacity, the representative said at a pre-Budget meeting in New Delhi in June.
Although most extremist groups have signed peace accords since the early 2000s, the perception has led to “very poor credit flow and absence of banking connections” for about 25 lakh small and marginal farmers who own about 20 lakh hectares of agricultural land.
“The need of the hour is to revive Assam’s large and highly potential agriculture sector with bank linkage. This sector has never had the privilege of being linked to banks in an organised manner, apart from the Kisan Credit Card and guideline loans,” said Nandita Sharma, Executive Director, Associated Tea and Agro Management Services (ATMS).
ATMS, a consultancy firm, represented the agriculture sector and farmers in the Northeast at a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other senior officials on June 21.
Ms Sharma said all schemes in agriculture, allied sectors and medium and small enterprise sectors in Assam and other parts of the Northeast failed mainly due to poor banking relationships.
“There is no tailor-made banking product even for the sectors that have been organised and developed by the Centre in the last 10 years. Our initiatives have created awareness among a few banks, but the intervention of the Finance Ministry, even in a small way, to change the perception of the banks can have a big impact on Assam’s GDP,” she said.
The ATMS proposed adapted banking products through ‘small loans’ in pig farming and bamboo, besides grain products.
Fiscal assistance to pig farmers, most of whom are tribal members and fall into the Below Poverty Line category, could boost meat production to 50,000 metric tons a year, the group said. Bank-directed bamboo plantations suited to the northeast’s soil and climate could boost biofuel production, the group said.
This is a Premium article available exclusively to our subscribers. To read over 250 such premium articles every month
You have exhausted your free article limit. Please support quality journalism.
You have exhausted your free article limit. Please support quality journalism.
X
You have read {{data.cm.views}} out {{data.cm.maxViews}} free articles.
X
This is your last free article.
