Indian economy being agrarian one, its growth mainly depends on performance of agriculture. In early sixties the country witnessed widespread, severe drought successively which coupled with war with China in 1962 and Pakistan in 1965 and forced India to import food grains. This had a severe impact on the overall developmental efforts.   Self-sufficiency in food, found an answer in the Green Revolution and as a first step High Yielding Varieties (HYV) programme was launched. Number of new High Yielding Varieties initially of staple food crops like Rice, Wheat, Jowar etc. were developed which gave impetus to the development of number of High Yielding hybrids of various crops.

Bank of India made foray in rural development in the year 1968 i.e. concomitant to onset of Green Revolution. The bank exhibited its involvement in rural development with all vigour.   The bank extended a helping hand in right earnest to progressive farmers for raising High Yielding Varieties (HYV) of crops and production of hybrid seeds through delivery of timely credit by way of CROP LOANS.

It has been a long path breaking journey of over three decades, which started with attempts to finance particular crops being grown in different locations of the country under the guidance of some progressive farmers or a group of farmers or under the aegis of developmental organisations. Now the Bank has reached a stage where the crop loan disbursements upto March 2005 have surpassed Rs.1200 crore.

To achieve this, 350 exclusive Crop loan financing branches have been identified. Location-wise and Crop-wise ready reckoners are being provided to the branches to facilitate crop loaning on massive scale in the shortest possible time. We are happy that we have contributed our mite in the good performance of the country.   India has not only achieved self-sufficiency in the production of foodgrains but has emerged as the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world.   It is now vying for exports. Bank has left its imprints in this exercise of increased production and productivity of various farm products, their preservation, processing for value addition, storage and ultimately for marketing for fetching a better price to the farmers.

Progress under KCC

Milk requirement of bigger cities was met through import of milk powder from New Zealand and USA. In 1970 began the era of "Operation Flood" which is also known as "White Revolution." The Bank started financing farmers for crop loans in 1968. As the crop loan borrowers became familiar with our branches, a need was felt to initiate steps to increase their income through systematic development of traditional non-farm activities like dairy, poultry etc. The schemes of lending for allied activities like dairy and poultry were developed. Farmers were educated to create regular source of income, to take care of the maintenance expenditure of the farm and the family through popularisation of Dairy Development schemes. It was with this idea that the model of financing two milch cattle was developed for farmers.

The branches made systematic attempts to procure high yielding milch cattle from renowned centres. The efforts were further supplemented when voluntary organisations like Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF) launched a massive project in Western India particularly in the State of Maharashtra for cross breeding of animals with Artificial Insemination (AI). This scheme was assisted with supply of feed for rearing of the female calf (heifer) till it attained puberty. The large number of crossbred animals were, therefore, successfully nurtured with the Bank's financial assistance to increase the production of milk per cow from the meagre 500 ml to a minimum 6-7 litres per day in the first lactation itself. The genetically improved livestock was the source of strength for the farmers and his family.

Bank of India through its Lead Bank network prevailed upon the developmental authorities to establish milk collection societies and milk routes. These efforts were made to ensure that the milk being produced in these villages in the service area of the Bank's branches is definitely collected and then tranferred to chilling plants and thereafter to bigger cities for marketing. The Bank financed large number of beneficiaries, even farm labourers for development of livestock through this programme. It also encouraged establishment of commercial dairies. The Bank is associated with the development of large dairies like Warana Dairy near Kolhapur in the co-operative sector, besides number of commercial dairies in private sector.

Bank of India, with present outstanding exposure of Rs.246.99 crores involving 84,787 farmers is proud of its active participation in the White Revolution and "Operation Flood I & II" which has resulted in transformation of our country from importing of milk powder to attaining the premiere position in production of milk in last three decades.

POULTRY

"Achievers don't need to be egged on, they go all out and succeed"

Bank of India is associated with the development of Poultry since long.

Bank had started financing the Poultry farmers when poultry was adopted as backyard farming for 100-500 birds and equipments under deep litter system.

Large number of rural youths were gainfully employed in poultry farms financed by the Bank.

Later the Bank associated itself with the commercial giants in poultry like VHL/GODREJ/INDIAN POULTRY GROUP, etc. The Bank has also financed environmentally controlled Hi-Tech state-of-the-art poultry projects from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc. where even 5 lakh birds are being reared.

The Bank has been instrumental in development of Integrated Poultry projects involving rearing of grand parent/parent stock, production of day old chicks, rearing of broiler birds in environmentally controlled conditions, their scientific feeding and watering, ultra-modern veterinary care and ultimately hygienic processing, packing and marketing of various poultry products at affordable rates to the consumers.

Despite diverse food habits and preference for vegetarian diet, due to concerted efforts by National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC) the production of eggs has reached a level of 34 billion per annum taking India to the fourth position in the world. The production and consumption of poultry meat is yet to get the desired impetus.

While the 3 decades of poultry development in India have witnessed a lot of turbulent periods for this activity, the Bank has firmly stood by these poultry farmers in their thick and thin. Poultry sector provides gainful employment to 2 million people and contributes Rs.30000 crore to the GDP

The outstanding advances of the Bank to Poultry amount to Rs.178 crore spread over in 7092 accounts.

HI-TECH AGRICULTURE

You can overcome any obstacle, as long as you concentrate on the goal"

The Bank has pioneered hi-tech agriculture by establishing the first (Hi-tech) Agri-Finance Branch of any commercial Bank in the country at Pune in September 1995. At the most potential centres for hi-tech agriculture like Bangalore, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, another three Agri (Hi-Tech) Finance Branches have been opened by the Bank. Large number of propositions for hi-tech agriculture have been processed by our experienced staff. We are equipped to undertake massive financing for hi-tech agricultural projects. The Golden Revolution beckons us to undertake massive financing with enough experience gained in financing for production, processing and marketing for exports of horticultural crops like grapes, banana, mangoes, pomegranates, figs, cashews etc. and vegetables, spices and condiments.

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