20 PSU banks fail to meet farm lending target

As many as 20 public sector banks, including big ones like Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank, have failed to achieve the annual farm sector lending target till November 2008.

Only seven out 27 state-owned banks could achieve the stipulated target of disbursing 18 per cent of the net bank credit to the agriculture sector as on November last year, sources said.

The performance of the private sector banks on this count was worse as only two lenders out of 26 had done lending more than 18 per cent to the farm sector, sources added.

Besides Canara, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank, the others which missed the target till November include Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab & Sind Bank, Syndicate Bank and United Bank of India.

Among those which achieved the mandated level are Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur.

The Reserve Bank has mandated banks (both in public and private sector) to provide 18 per cent of Adjusted Net Bank Credit to agriculture sector, of which 13.5 per cent is to be disbursed as direct credit and 4.5 per cent towards indirect credit to agriculture.