By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 26, 2022: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday launched here a Common Credit Portal SAFAL, a Simplified Application for Agricultural Loans.

Launching the portal on virtual platform, Naveen said that the application can revolutionise credit provisions for farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.

Farmers are the backbone of our economy, and agriculture is the largest employer in the state in addition to being the key to socio-economic development of our people, Naveen remarked, expressing his happiness over the launch of the portal.

The CM said that the application is a one-stop-solution for farmers and agri-entrepreneurs to avail formal sector credit from Public and Private sector banks, Regional Rural Banks, State Cooperative Banks and Small Finance Banks.

With this facility, Naveen said, farmers and agri entrepreneurs will have access to more than 300 term loan products being offered by 40 plus partner banks. Besides, it has been integrated with Krushak Odisha as well as the access to 70 plus model project reports, he added asserting that it would ease the loan application process benefiting both the farmers and banks significantly.

The portal will also reduce information asymmetry by sending farmers real-time notifications at every stage of their loan application, he assured. He further said that SAFAL will also provide the government with complete visibility of demand and disbursal of formal credit across states and ensure schemes are designed in a data-backed manner.

He hoped that SAFAL would be a facilitator of credit to spur the agriculture and allied sectors in our State and increase the economic prowess of our farmers in the long run.

He added that his government, therefore, lays special emphasis on the development of farming sector through various interventions supported by a comprehensive and inclusive state agricultural policy with the government taking strides in increasing the income of farmers.

Speaking on the occasion, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain outlined the steps taken by his department for economic development and welfare of farmers.

Agriculture Production Commissioner-cum-ACS Sanjeev Chopra highlighted the achievement of Odisha in the agriculture sector.

CEO of RBI Innovation Hub and CMD of UCO Bank also spoke on the occasion. They said that Banks appreciate the CM’s efforts for economic integration of farmers and agri entrepreneurs. They assured complete support by banks to farmers in the all the initiatives of the state government.