NABARD has projected Odisha’s overall credit potential for the financial year 2022-23 at Rs 1,34,665 crore. The projection was in the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (NABARD) state focus paper for Odisha, which was released on Tuesday.

State Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari urged banks to enhance their credit ratio to priority sectors.

NABARD Chairman-cum-General Manager (CGM) C Udayabhaskar said that concerted efforts need to be made for achieving the set targets for the current financial year and increasing the credit flow to priority sectors.

As per NABARD’s state focus paper for Odisha, the credit projection for the state for the financial year 2022-23 is 21.61 per cent more than Rs 1,10,735 crore of the previous fiscal.

The agriculture sector is estimated to get the highest credit of Rs 52,050.78 crore (or 38.65 per cent more) of the total credit potential. Farm credit, which includes both crop loans and term loans for agriculture and allied sectors, is expected to be at Rs 48,221.10 crore in the sector.

The credit potential for farm infrastructure and associated operations has been projected at Rs 1,824.33 crore and Rs 2,005.34 crore respectively.

The focus paper also mentioned that the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sector has a credit potential of Rs 60,001.27 crore, accounting for 44.56 per cent of the entire priority sector.

Also, the paper projected that export credit, education, housing, renewable energy and social infrastructure account for around 16.79 per cent of Odisha’s credit potential.