Jorhatযোৰহাট

What the plan promotes

• ▸Tea is the flagship: Jorhat sits in Assam's major tea belt with 135 tea gardens in the organised sector plus many small tea gardens that emerged since the mid-1990s; PLP thrust is JLG-linked interventions for small tea growers.
• ▸Paddy (Sali winter rice) is the leading crop, backed by mustard, black gram, pea, garlic, potato, green gram, lentil, onion, groundnut and banana.
• ▸Livestock and allied term-loan potential is large: Dairy 93.08 Cr, Sheep/Goat/Piggery 40.68 Cr, Poultry 39.71 Cr and Fishery 33.96 Cr.
• ▸Two vegetable Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) were sanctioned, one in Dhekargorah and one in Titabor, together covering about 600 farmers; PLP wants more FPOs in animal husbandry and fisheries.
• ▸Bamboo and handloom are named thrust sectors, with promotion of handloom Off-Farm Producer Organisations (OFPOs) and bamboo-based livelihood activities.
• ▸A JLG credit-linkage project targeting 4,000 women was sanctioned to Konoklota Mohila Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd, the first women co-operative bank in the North East.

Gaps the plan names

• ▸Banks are reluctant to finance agriculture and allied sectors; involving grass-root community bodies like PRIs and Gaon Burhas plus constant district-administration monitoring is needed to lift ground-level credit flow.
• ▸Weak coordination between district administration, banks and line departments slows development and credit delivery.
• ▸Farmers cultivating satra/monastery land and char/riverine areas lack proper land-cultivation documents, which blocks them from KCC and other bank and government facilities; the State needs to resolve this.
• ▸Poor repayment of bank loans, low awareness of banking habits and weak achievement under the District Credit Plan inhibit ground-level credit growth.
• ▸Quarterly DCC/DLRC review of the District Credit Plan is not very effective; at least monthly physical/webinar review and monitoring is considered necessary.