Two Decades of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund Genesis, Performance and Impact

Abstract

For agricultural development, India has been endowed with significant amount of resources viz. land, labor, water, vegetation, livestock, fisheries, forestry accompanied by distinct agricultural seasons, among others. To facilitate these resources to express their potential for agricultural production, productivity and profitability, physical and institutional infrastructure is a sine qua non. As agriculture is in the domain of the State Governments their efforts have been constrained to provide financial resources for putting in place the required physical infrastructure for agricultural development. While public sector banks in particular have been increasingly financing agriculture since 1969 the credit absorption capacity of farmers has been constrained because of inadequate infrastructure. Search for innovations has been a continuous process. Government of India in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development [NABARD] developed an innovative approach to find financial resources in order to complete the infrastructure projects, more importantly irrigation projects that used to remain uncompleted because of lack of financial resources & subsequently incorporating a plethora of social components. It is the serious concern & commitment of NABARD to implement, monitor, review & incorporate much needed components under RIDF has not only made the innovation most successful but also shows the way to State Governments that this can be done.In this context, this development perspective article briefly highlights the genesis, performance and economic impact of the innovative approach to rural infrastructure both for agricultural and rural development since two decades.