NABARD to bestow awards to Farmers' Clubs, Bank Branches

Mumbai, Feb 6 (UNI) National Bank for Agriculture and rural Development (NABARD) will honour the best performing Farmers' Clubs and associated bank managers at a function to be held in New Delhi on February 8.

Launched as Vikas Volunteer Vahini (VVV) Programme in 1982 by NABARD, Farmers' Clubs act as a link between agriculturists and bankers promoting technological innovation and value addition in agriculture. Some of the Farmers' Clubs act as business facilitators for the banking system.

NABARD has an ambitious target of quadrupling these clubs, which number around 25,000 currently, during the eleventh five year plan to strengthen agricultural credit delivery and extension system. Future plans envisage graduation of some of these Clubs into Federation of Farmers' Clubs, Producers' Groups or Producers' Companies for joint marketing of farmers' produce, NABARD said in release here.

Union finance Minister P Chidambaram and Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal would grace the award function.

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