Farmers Clubs Programme

News:Government has informed the Lok Sabha that there are around there are 24321 active Farmers clubs existing in different States/UTs.

Facts:

About Farmers clubs:

• The Farmers Clubs programme which was earlier known as Vikas Volunteer Vahini(VVV) Programme was launched by NABARD in 1982.
• The Programme was renamed as Farmers’ Club Programme in 2005 by revisiting its earlier mission.
• The major objective of the club is to promote development through credit, technology transfer, awareness and capacity building of the farmers. 
• The clubs are organized by rural branches of banks with the support and financial assistance of NABARD for the mutual benefit of the banks concerned and the village farming community/rural people.
• All Institutional agencies such as Commercial Banks, Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks and all grassroot level organisations such as NGOs, PRIs, State Agricultural Universities among others are eligible to form Farmers’ Clubs.
• The clubs are beneficial for banks as well as line departments of the State Government for convergence of the programmes / schemes sponsored / implemented by them.

Additional information:

About NABARD:

• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an apex development financial institution in India.NABARD was established in 1982 to implement the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act 1981.
• NABARD was entrusted with matters concerning policy,planning and operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas in India.
• Recently,the Reserve Bank had divested its stake in National Housing Bank (NHB) and National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard), by making them fully government-owned.