As part of the strategy, a national milk plan would be launched in 325 districts across the country with help from the National Dairy Development Board to ensure that every farmer gets a regular daily subsidiary income to overcome distress during crop failures, NABARD chairman Y S P Thorat told in an interview.

NABARD would also launch an innovative village adoption scheme in July for integrated and holistic development of villages to coincide with its Silver Jubilee celebrations.

Initially, NABARD proposes to adopt 400 villages which would become a model for development and rope in the lead banks to expand this initiative.

Every year 1,200 villages are expected to be developed by NABARD and lead banks once the scheme picks up.

Buoyed by the success of microfinance in the country, NABARD would be setting up an institution for this purpose which would have a corpus of Rs 500 crore in 3 years.

These measures are aimed at alleviating the suffering of debt ridden farmers, some of whom resort to suicide, and ensure a regular income during adverse situations besides overall development of villages.

Source: Zee News