What is NABARD and which ministry does it report to?

NABARD — the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development — is India's apex development bank for agriculture and rural India, set up as a statutory body under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981 on the recommendation of the Sivaraman Committee (the Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development, or CRAFICARD). The bank became operational on 12 July 1982 with headquarters in Mumbai at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. NABARD is administratively under the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, with policy coordination on agriculture and rural-development programmes routed through the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, DA&FW) and the Ministry of Rural Development. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initially co-owned NABARD but divested its residual 0.4% stake in 2018, making NABARD 100% owned by the Government of India.

What are NABARD's three core mandates?

NABARD operates on three mandates set out in the NABARD Act, 1981. First, the financial mandate — refinance of short-term and long-term agricultural and allied-activity lending by Cooperative Banks (State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and scheduled commercial banks; and direct lending to state governments and state-owned corporations, principally under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). Second, the developmental mandate — promotion of rural infrastructure (RIDF), watershed development (Watershed Development Fund), tribal livelihoods (Tribal Development Fund's wadi orchard model), Self Help Group-Bank Linkage (the world's largest microfinance programme by reach, pioneered by NABARD in 1992), promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (NABARD is one of three Implementing Agencies under the 10,000 FPO scheme alongside SFAC and NCDC), Producer Organisation Development Fund (PODF) and skill-building / Producers Organisation Development & Upliftment Corpus (PRODUCE) interventions. Third, the supervisory mandate — statutory on-site and off-site inspection of State Cooperative Banks, District Central Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks under Section 35(6) of the Banking Regulation Act, on behalf of RBI.

What is the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and how does it work?

RIDF is NABARD's flagship state-finance window for rural infrastructure, established in 1995-96 from the shortfall in scheduled commercial banks' priority-sector lending — banks that fall short of their priority-sector targets are required to deposit the shortfall with NABARD, and that pool funds the RIDF. The corpus is announced afresh each Union Budget by tranche — RIDF-I in 1995-96, RIDF-XXIX in 2023-24 with a notified corpus of around ₹40,000 crore, and continuing tranches in subsequent budgets. State governments and state-owned corporations are the borrowers; eligible end-uses include rural roads and bridges, irrigation infrastructure (canal-lining, lift-irrigation, micro-irrigation, anicuts), drinking-water supply, rural schools and primary health centres, soil-conservation and watershed structures, fisheries / animal-husbandry / dairy infrastructure, and rural godowns. RIDF lending carries concessional interest aligned to the bank-rate framework and is repayable over 7-15 years. Tranche-wise sanctions and state-wise disbursements are published on nabard.org.

How does NABARD support Farmer Producer Organisations and the 10,000 FPO scheme?

NABARD is one of the three notified Implementing Agencies (IAs) under the Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations, launched on 29 February 2020 by the Government of India through DA&FW, alongside the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). As an IA, NABARD empanels Cluster-Based Business Organisations (CBBOs) which mobilise farmer-members, register the FPO as a producer company, and provide three years of handholding support — covering business planning, governance, credit linkage, market linkage and statutory compliances. Per-FPO support under the scheme is up to ₹18 lakh over three years for FPO formation and handholding, plus an equity-grant ceiling of ₹2,000 per farmer-member up to ₹15 lakh per FPO, and a credit-guarantee cover up to ₹2 crore per FPO loan under the NABARD-managed FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme. NABARD also runs its own Producer Organisation Development Fund (PODF) and the PRODUCE Fund for FPO promotion outside the 10,000 FPO scheme envelope.

What is the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme that NABARD pioneered?

The Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) was launched by NABARD in 1992 as a pilot of 500 SHGs through the NGO MYRADA, and has since grown into the world's largest microfinance programme by reach. Under SHG-BLP, NABARD provides a framework for groups of typically 10-20 women (or men) from socio-economically homogeneous households to self-organise as a thrift-and-credit group, open a savings bank account, and graduate to bank credit — first as a savings-linkage and then as a credit-linkage — without the cost of an MFI intermediary. Cooperative banks, RRBs and commercial banks are the front-line lenders; NABARD provides refinance support, capacity-building grants to the partner NGOs / Self Help Promoting Institutions, and policy oversight. The programme is the principal microfinance and women-financial-inclusion channel of the Government of India, with periodic NABARD publications (the annual 'Status of Microfinance in India' report) tracking the SHG count, savings outstanding and bank-loan outstanding.

How does NABARD underlie KCC, AIF and the other DA&FW schemes a farmer encounters?

Almost every working-capital and investment-credit scheme a farmer encounters through their cooperative bank, RRB or scheduled commercial bank is refinanced or co-supported by NABARD in the background. The Kisan Credit Card (see our /kcc guide) is operated by the front-line lender but the short-term crop-loan refinance to cooperatives and RRBs runs through NABARD's Short-Term (Seasonal Agricultural Operations) refinance window; long-term investment KCC components draw on NABARD's Long-Term Refinance. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (see our /aif guide) is implemented by DA&FW on the agriinfra.dac.gov.in portal but the refinance support to participating banks and the FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme stacked with AIF run through NABARD. The 10,000 FPO scheme (see our /fpo-scheme guide) lists NABARD as one of the three Implementing Agencies. Watershed and irrigation works under PMKSY (see our /pmksy and /per-drop-more-crop guides) are co-financed through RIDF for the state-side share. Dairy and animal-husbandry infrastructure under Rashtriya Gokul Mission (see our /rashtriya-gokul-mission guide) and PMMSY fisheries infrastructure (see our /pmmsy guide) draw on NABARD's term-loan refinance window for state cooperatives.

NABARD Guide — National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development: Apex Development Bank under the NABARD Act 1981 (Operational 12 July 1982), 100% Government of India Owned, with Three Mandates (Financial Refinance, Developmental Programmes and Statutory Supervision of Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks) and the RIDF / WDF / TDF / FPO Formation Grant / SHG-Bank Linkage Portfolio

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is India's apex development bank for agriculture and rural India. Set up under the NABARD Act, 1981 on the recommendation of the Sivaraman Committee (CRAFICARD) and operational from 12 July 1982, NABARD is headquartered in Mumbai at the Bandra-Kurla Complex and is 100% owned by the Government of Indiaafter the Reserve Bank of India's residual 0.4% stake was acquired by GoI in 2018. Unlike a scheme, NABARD is an institution — the refinance and developmental rail that underlies the Kisan Credit Card, the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, the 10,000 FPO formation scheme, watershed and irrigation works under PMKSY, and many of the DA&FW programmes a farmer encounters at the cooperative bank or Regional Rural Bank counter. For the wider scheme portfolio see our India government schemes for farmers reference.

At a glance

Type: Apex development bank — statutory body, not a scheme.
Statute: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981 (Act 61 of 1981).
Origin: Recommendation of the Sivaraman Committee (CRAFICARD) — Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development.
Operational from: 12 July 1982.
Headquarters: Mumbai — Plot No. C-24, 'G' Block, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East).
Ownership: 100% Government of India — RBI's residual 0.4% stake bought out by GoI in 2018.
Administrative ministry: Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance.
Three mandates: Financial (refinance + direct lending), Developmental (RIDF, WDF, TDF, SHG-BLP, FPO promotion), Supervisory (cooperative banks + RRBs).
Portals: nabard.org, rbi.org.in, financialservices.gov.in.

Why an apex development bank — the Sivaraman Committee origin

In the late 1970s, agricultural credit in India was fragmented across the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC), the Agricultural Credit Department of the Reserve Bank of India and the Rural Planning and Credit Cell. The Sivaraman Committee — formally the Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development (CRAFICARD) — was set up by RBI in March 1979 and recommended in November 1979 that all these functions be consolidated into a single apex institution. The Parliament enacted the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981, and NABARD became operational on 12 July 1982by absorbing ARDC and the rural-credit functions of RBI. The RBI initially co-owned NABARD; over successive recapitalisations the Government of India's stake grew and RBI's residual 0.4% stake was acquired by the Government of India in 2018, making NABARD wholly Government-owned.

What NABARD actually does — the three mandates

1. Financial mandate — refinance and direct lending

NABARD does not directly open accounts for individual farmers. Instead, it is a bank for banks — refinancing the agricultural and rural-development lending of front-line institutions:

Short-Term Refinance (Seasonal Agricultural Operations, SAO): refinance to State Cooperative Banks (StCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) for crop loans, including the production-credit component of the Kisan Credit Card.
Long-Term Refinance:refinance to cooperative banks, RRBs and scheduled commercial banks for investment credit — farm mechanisation, minor irrigation, land development, dairy / poultry / fisheries assets, plantation crops, custom hiring centres and storage / processing infrastructure. KCC's investment-credit component and many AIF-aligned bank loans tap this window.
Direct lending under RIDF: NABARD lends directly to state governments and state-owned corporations from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (see below).
Long-term capital from market issuances: NABARD raises long-term funds through tax-free bonds, capital-gains bonds and rupee-denominated bond issues to finance its developmental and refinance pipeline.

2. Developmental mandate — rural infrastructure, livelihoods and producer organisations

The developmental rail funds public-good interventions that the commercial market does not finance unaided. The principal instruments are:

Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF): see the dedicated section below.
Watershed Development Fund (WDF):set up in 1999-2000 with an initial corpus of ₹100 crore from NABARD and ₹100 crore from RBI; supports participatory watershed projects in rain-fed and dryland districts, often co-financed with state governments and DA&FW's soil-conservation envelope. Convergence with the watershed component of PMKSY is the standard implementation mode.
Tribal Development Fund (TDF): supports wadi (orchard-based) livelihood projects in tribal districts — fruit-tree plantations on tribal smallholdings (mango, cashew, citrus, custard apple) with inter-cropped pulses and vegetables, capacity building and community institutions.
Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP): launched by NABARD in 1992 with a 500-SHG pilot through MYRADA; now the world's largest microfinance programme by reach. The annual NABARD "Status of Microfinance in India" report tracks SHG counts, savings linkage and credit linkage.
Farmer Producer Organisation promotion: NABARD is one of the three Implementing Agencies — along with SFAC and NCDC — under the Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs, with per-FPO support up to ₹18 lakh over three years for formation and handholding through Cluster-Based Business Organisations (CBBOs), an equity-grant ceiling of ₹2,000 per farmer-member up to ₹15 lakh per FPO, and an FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme covering loans up to ₹2 crore per FPO. NABARD also runs its own Producer Organisation Development Fund (PODF) and the PRODUCE(Producers Organisation Development & Upliftment Corpus) Fund for FPO promotion outside the 10,000 FPO scheme envelope.
External lines for climate-resilient agriculture: NABARD operates lines of credit from KfW (Germany), JICA (Japan) and the World Bank to fund climate-resilient agriculture, adaptation projects, and watershed and irrigation works in specific states.

3. Supervisory mandate — cooperative banks and RRBs

Under Section 35(6) of the Banking Regulation Act, NABARD is the statutory inspector of the lower tier of the rural banking system on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India:

State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) — the apex tier of the three-tier short-term cooperative credit structure in each state.
District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) — the district tier, which lends to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) at the village level.
Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) — joint-venture banks of the Government of India, the sponsor commercial bank and the state government, focused on rural and agricultural lending.

NABARD conducts periodic on-site inspections, off-site monitoring through prescribed returns, and capacity-building for board members and senior management of supervised entities. Inspection reports flow to RBI for any regulatory action and to the state government in the case of cooperatives.

Programmes and funds — the operational portfolio

Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)

RIDF was established in 1995-96 as a state-finance window for rural infrastructure, funded principally by the shortfall in scheduled commercial banks' priority-sector lending. Banks that do not meet their priority-sector targets are required to deposit the shortfall with NABARD, and that pool — supplemented by NABARD's own resources — funds the RIDF. Key features:

Tranche-wise corpora: each Union Budget announces a fresh tranche. RIDF-I in 1995-96 began at ₹2,000 crore; RIDF-XXIX announced in the 2023-24 Union Budget carried a corpus of around ₹40,000 crore, and subsequent tranches have continued at similar order of magnitude.
Borrowers: state governments and state-owned corporations.
Eligible end-uses: rural roads and bridges, irrigation infrastructure (canal-lining, lift-irrigation, micro-irrigation, anicuts, check-dams), drinking-water supply, rural schools and primary health centres, soil-conservation and watershed structures, rural godowns and market-yard upgrades, and fisheries / animal-husbandry / dairy infrastructure.
Terms: concessional interest aligned to the bank-rate framework; repayable over 7-15 years.
Cumulative scale: tranche-wise sanctions and state-wise disbursements are published on nabard.org — RIDF has become one of the largest sources of rural-infra finance for state governments in India.

Watershed Development Fund (WDF)

WDF was set up in 1999-2000 with an initial corpus of ₹100 crore from NABARD and ₹100 crore from RBI, to finance participatory watershed projects in priority districts. WDF projects are typically community-managed, with 10-15% farmer contribution and the balance from WDF / state matching share, and are routinely converged with the watershed component of PMKSY and the watershed dovetail of MGNREGA. The WDF rail has been a precursor and complement to many of the dryland-area watershed initiatives in DA&FW.

Tribal Development Fund (TDF) — the wadi model

The Tribal Development Fund supports the wadi orchard model in tribal districts — small orchards (typically 1 acre per tribal household) of mango, cashew, citrus or custard apple, with inter-cropped pulses and vegetables, integrated with soil and water conservation, community institutions and market linkages. The model was pioneered by BAIF Development Research Foundation in Gujarat and Maharashtra and scaled by NABARD across tribal districts in central and eastern India.

FPO formation grant — implementing agency role

Under the Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOslaunched on 29 February 2020, three agencies are notified as Implementing Agencies (IAs): NABARD, the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). As an IA, NABARD:

Empanels Cluster-Based Business Organisations (CBBOs) — typically NGOs, FPCs, KVKs or producer-promotion companies — which do the on-the-ground FPO mobilisation, registration, governance setup and three years of handholding.
Disburses up to ₹18 lakh per FPO over three years for formation and handholding via the CBBO.
Provides equity-grant matching at ₹2,000 per farmer-member up to ₹15 lakh per FPO.
Operates the FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme — credit guarantee cover up to ₹2 crore per FPO loan, stackable with the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund interest subvention.

SHG-Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP)

SHG-BLP started in 1992 with a NABARD pilot of 500 SHGs through MYRADA. The architecture is simple: groups of 10-20 women from socio-economically homogeneous households self-organise as a thrift-and-credit group, open a no-frills savings account at a cooperative bank, RRB or commercial bank, and graduate to bank credit. NABARD provides refinance to the bank, capacity-building grants to the Self Help Promoting Institution (NGO or state agency midwifing the SHG), and policy oversight. The programme is the principal women-financial-inclusion channel of the Government of India and ranks as the largest microfinance programme in the world by reach. The annual NABARD "Status of Microfinance in India" report is the authoritative reference.

How NABARD fits with the schemes a farmer encounters

Kisan Credit Card (KCC): issued at the cooperative bank, RRB or scheduled commercial bank counter; the crop-loan refinance to cooperatives and RRBs runs through NABARD's Short-Term (SAO) window, and the investment-credit component draws on the Long-Term Refinance window.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF): applied through agriinfra.dac.gov.in to a participating bank; NABARD provides refinance support and runs the FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme that FPO-led AIF projects can stack with the 3% interest subvention.
10,000 FPO Scheme: NABARD is one of the three Implementing Agencies alongside SFAC and NCDC; the FPO is mobilised through a NABARD-empanelled CBBO and receives formation, equity-grant and credit-guarantee support from NABARD.
PMKSY and Per Drop More Crop: the state-side share of canal-lining, lift-irrigation, micro-irrigation infrastructure and watershed works is often financed through RIDF, with WDF for the watershed-only component.
PMMSY:fisheries infrastructure under PMMSY — cold chain, harbour upgrades, fish seed production, hatchery infrastructure — taps NABARD's term-loan refinance for state cooperatives and federations alongside the central / state grant components.
Rashtriya Gokul Mission:dairy and indigenous-breed infrastructure — semen stations, bull mother farms, milk chilling and dairy plant upgrades — draws on NABARD's long-term refinance window for state cooperative dairy federations.
ATMA / SMAE:NABARD does not fund ATMA directly but its FPO and SHG promotion architecture converges with ATMA's Farmer Field Schools at the block level on capacity-building for member farmers.

Where to find authoritative information

nabard.org — Official portal of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development — Act, Annual Report, RIDF tranche-wise corpora and state-wise sanctions, refinance window circulars, FPO scheme guidelines and the SHG-Bank Linkage 'Status of Microfinance in India' report.
rbi.org.in — Reserve Bank of India — the regulator that delegates statutory inspection of State Cooperative Banks, DCCBs and RRBs to NABARD under Section 35(6) of the Banking Regulation Act, and that originally co-owned NABARD before the Government of India bought out RBI's residual 0.4% stake in 2018.
dfs.gov.in — Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance — administrative ministry of NABARD, publishes the NABARD board appointments, recapitalisation notifications and policy circulars.
finmin.nic.in — Ministry of Finance — Union Budget RIDF tranche announcements, NABARD recapitalisation provisions and the priority-sector lending shortfall framework that funds RIDF.
agriwelfare.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare — the 10,000 FPO scheme guidelines, the AIF guidelines (agriinfra.dac.gov.in) and other DA&FW programmes that NABARD refinances or implements.
pib.gov.in — Press Information Bureau — Cabinet and Ministry of Finance / DA&FW press releases on NABARD recapitalisation, RIDF corpus, FPO scheme empanelment and SHG-Bank Linkage milestones.

Frequently asked questions

What is NABARD and which ministry does it report to?: NABARD — the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development — is India's apex development bank for agriculture and rural India, set up as a statutory body under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981 on the recommendation of the Sivaraman Committee (the Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development, or CRAFICARD). The bank became operational on 12 July 1982 with headquarters in Mumbai at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. NABARD is administratively under the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, with policy coordination on agriculture and rural-development programmes routed through the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, DA&FW) and the Ministry of Rural Development. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initially co-owned NABARD but divested its residual 0.4% stake in 2018, making NABARD 100% owned by the Government of India.
What are NABARD's three core mandates?: NABARD operates on three mandates set out in the NABARD Act, 1981. First, the financial mandate — refinance of short-term and long-term agricultural and allied-activity lending by Cooperative Banks (State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and scheduled commercial banks; and direct lending to state governments and state-owned corporations, principally under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). Second, the developmental mandate — promotion of rural infrastructure (RIDF), watershed development (Watershed Development Fund), tribal livelihoods (Tribal Development Fund's wadi orchard model), Self Help Group-Bank Linkage (the world's largest microfinance programme by reach, pioneered by NABARD in 1992), promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (NABARD is one of three Implementing Agencies under the 10,000 FPO scheme alongside SFAC and NCDC), Producer Organisation Development Fund (PODF) and skill-building / Producers Organisation Development & Upliftment Corpus (PRODUCE) interventions. Third, the supervisory mandate — statutory on-site and off-site inspection of State Cooperative Banks, District Central Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks under Section 35(6) of the Banking Regulation Act, on behalf of RBI.
What is the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and how does it work?: RIDF is NABARD's flagship state-finance window for rural infrastructure, established in 1995-96 from the shortfall in scheduled commercial banks' priority-sector lending — banks that fall short of their priority-sector targets are required to deposit the shortfall with NABARD, and that pool funds the RIDF. The corpus is announced afresh each Union Budget by tranche — RIDF-I in 1995-96, RIDF-XXIX in 2023-24 with a notified corpus of around ₹40,000 crore, and continuing tranches in subsequent budgets. State governments and state-owned corporations are the borrowers; eligible end-uses include rural roads and bridges, irrigation infrastructure (canal-lining, lift-irrigation, micro-irrigation, anicuts), drinking-water supply, rural schools and primary health centres, soil-conservation and watershed structures, fisheries / animal-husbandry / dairy infrastructure, and rural godowns. RIDF lending carries concessional interest aligned to the bank-rate framework and is repayable over 7-15 years. Tranche-wise sanctions and state-wise disbursements are published on nabard.org.
How does NABARD support Farmer Producer Organisations and the 10,000 FPO scheme?: NABARD is one of the three notified Implementing Agencies (IAs) under the Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations, launched on 29 February 2020 by the Government of India through DA&FW, alongside the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). As an IA, NABARD empanels Cluster-Based Business Organisations (CBBOs) which mobilise farmer-members, register the FPO as a producer company, and provide three years of handholding support — covering business planning, governance, credit linkage, market linkage and statutory compliances. Per-FPO support under the scheme is up to ₹18 lakh over three years for FPO formation and handholding, plus an equity-grant ceiling of ₹2,000 per farmer-member up to ₹15 lakh per FPO, and a credit-guarantee cover up to ₹2 crore per FPO loan under the NABARD-managed FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme. NABARD also runs its own Producer Organisation Development Fund (PODF) and the PRODUCE Fund for FPO promotion outside the 10,000 FPO scheme envelope.
What is the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme that NABARD pioneered?: The Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) was launched by NABARD in 1992 as a pilot of 500 SHGs through the NGO MYRADA, and has since grown into the world's largest microfinance programme by reach. Under SHG-BLP, NABARD provides a framework for groups of typically 10-20 women (or men) from socio-economically homogeneous households to self-organise as a thrift-and-credit group, open a savings bank account, and graduate to bank credit — first as a savings-linkage and then as a credit-linkage — without the cost of an MFI intermediary. Cooperative banks, RRBs and commercial banks are the front-line lenders; NABARD provides refinance support, capacity-building grants to the partner NGOs / Self Help Promoting Institutions, and policy oversight. The programme is the principal microfinance and women-financial-inclusion channel of the Government of India, with periodic NABARD publications (the annual 'Status of Microfinance in India' report) tracking the SHG count, savings outstanding and bank-loan outstanding.
How does NABARD underlie KCC, AIF and the other DA&FW schemes a farmer encounters?: Almost every working-capital and investment-credit scheme a farmer encounters through their cooperative bank, RRB or scheduled commercial bank is refinanced or co-supported by NABARD in the background. The Kisan Credit Card (see our /kcc guide) is operated by the front-line lender but the short-term crop-loan refinance to cooperatives and RRBs runs through NABARD's Short-Term (Seasonal Agricultural Operations) refinance window; long-term investment KCC components draw on NABARD's Long-Term Refinance. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (see our /aif guide) is implemented by DA&FW on the agriinfra.dac.gov.in portal but the refinance support to participating banks and the FPO Credit Guarantee Scheme stacked with AIF run through NABARD. The 10,000 FPO scheme (see our /fpo-scheme guide) lists NABARD as one of the three Implementing Agencies. Watershed and irrigation works under PMKSY (see our /pmksy and /per-drop-more-crop guides) are co-financed through RIDF for the state-side share. Dairy and animal-husbandry infrastructure under Rashtriya Gokul Mission (see our /rashtriya-gokul-mission guide) and PMMSY fisheries infrastructure (see our /pmmsy guide) draw on NABARD's term-loan refinance window for state cooperatives.

Institutional details, the three-mandate framing, RIDF / WDF / TDF and FPO scheme parameters above summarise publicly available information from the NABARD Act 1981, the NABARD Annual Report on nabard.org, RBI's 2018 stake-divestment notification on rbi.org.in, and DA&FW circulars on the 10,000 FPO scheme at agriwelfare.gov.in, current as of mid-2026. RIDF tranche corpora, FPO Credit Guarantee ceilings and refinance terms are revised periodically; bankers and state agencies should verify current parameters with the relevant NABARD regional office or Head Office, Mumbai, before finalising projects.