Producers Organisation Development Fund (PODF)

NABARD has taken an initiative for supporting producer organizations (POs), adopting a flexible approach to meet the needs of producers. In order to give a special focus, “Producers Organization Development Fund” (PODF) has been set up w.e.f. 01 April 2011, with an initial corpus of Rs. 50 crore.

Any registered PO viz. Producers Company (as defined under Sec. 581 A in part IXA of Company’s Act, 1956), Producers Cooperatives, registered Farmer Federations, MACS (Mutually Aided Cooperative Society), industrial cooperative societies, other registered federations, PACS, etc. set up by producers are eligible from the Fund.

Support under PODF is provided as under:

• Loan-linked grant support is available to the FPOs for promotion, capacity building & market interventions.
• Grant assistance to eligible agencies for organizing / conducting workshops, meetings, round table meetings, special studies, IT-based interventions, etc. is also available without linking to availing institutional loan.

Watershed Development Programme

The Union Finance Minister, in his budget speech for 1999-2000, had announced the creation of a Watershed Development Fund (WDF) in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) with broad objectives of unification of multiplicity of watershed development programmes into a single national initiative through involvement of village level institutions and Project Facilitating Agencies (PFAs).

In pursuance thereof, WDF has been created in NABARD with a contribution of Rs. 100 crore each by Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India (GoI) and NABARD.

Tribal Development Programmme

NABARD has been closely associated with tribal development and sustainable livelihoods through orchard based farming systems. As an integral component of NABARD’s Natural Resource Management (NRM) policy of providing sustainable livelihoods, NABARD laid special emphasis on providing support for holistic development of tribal communities with orchard establishment as the core element.

Based on the successful experience of Adivasi Development Programmes, NABARD embarked upon an ambitious program of replicating the wadi model across the country. In this direction, NABARD created a Tribal Development Fund (TDF) with a corpus of Rs. 50 crore, out of its profits for 2003-04. The corpus was augmented from time to time. All projects under TDF are implemented by partnering with State Governments, Government of India, NGOs and Corporates.