NABARD

NABARD provides short-term and long-term refinance support to commercial banks, cooperative banks, RRBs, and microfinance institutions. This enables them to offer affordable loans to farmers, MSMEs, and rural entrepreneurs.

NABARD inspects and supervises cooperative banks and regional rural banks to ensure financial stability, transparency, and proper service to rural communities.

Through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), NABARD finances projects such as irrigation systems, rural roads, bridges, schools, and health centres to improve village infrastructure.

NABARD promotes the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, connecting self-help groups (mainly women) with formal banks to provide collateral-free loans and strengthen rural livelihoods.

NABARD funds watershed development, tribal upliftment projects, farmers’ clubs, and training programmes. It also conducts research and publishes reports to support rural economic growth.

Because NABARD provides cheap refinance to banks, those banks can offer agricultural loans at lower interest rates than otherwise possible

NABARD strengthens cooperative banks and RRBs in rural areas, making formal credit available even in remote villages.

NABARD co-designed the KCC scheme which gives farmers flexible, revolving credit at low interest, replacing exploitative moneylenders.

NABARD funds watershed programmes that improve soil health, water availability, and productivity for dryland farmers.

Through WIF, NABARD helps build rural warehouses so farmers can store grain instead of selling at harvest-time distress prices.

NABARD has established over 2 lakh Farmers' Clubs across India that provide farmers with agricultural information, technology, and market linkages.

KCC provides farmers with a revolving credit facility to cover seasonal agricultural expenses like seeds, fertilizers, and labour at subsidised interest rates. It ensures quick and affordable working capital through banks.

This scheme supports long-term agricultural investments such as tractors, irrigation systems, dairy units, and horticulture projects through bank term loans backed by NABARD refinance. It offers flexible repayment periods of up to 15 years.

WIF finances the construction of warehouses, cold storages, and silos to reduce post-harvest losses and improve storage facilities in rural areas. It benefits private players, cooperatives, and FPOs through low-interest project loans.

NABARD supports rural small businesses like food processing, handicrafts, and agro-based industries through refinance and promotional schemes routed via banks. It helps rural entrepreneurs access affordable credit and expand operations.

This programme enables self-help groups to access collateral-free bank loans after regular savings and credit discipline. It empowers rural women and small entrepreneurs with easy and affordable financing options.

NABARD supports rural retail infrastructure and rural haats (periodic markets) to give rural artisans and MSMEs a platform to sell their products.

NABARD supports the development of artisan clusters — groups of craft producers in a specific area — by providing credit, technology, design inputs, and market linkages

Small-scale agro-processing units - pickles, papads, dairy products, spices, flour mills — can access NABARD-backed term loans through partner banks.

NABARD provides refinance to banks for loans given to rural MSMEs engaged in approved activities under the priority sector.

NABARD's training establishments like BIRD (Bankers Institute of Rural Development) in Lucknow conduct training for rural bank officers and rural entrepreneurs.

NABCONS provides consultancy services in agriculture, rural development, and banking to government agencies, international bodies, and financial institutions. If a state government wants to design a new rural development project, NABCONS can help.

NABFINS is NABARD's microfinance arm. It provides micro-credit directly to SHGs and joint liability groups (JLGs) in states where existing microfinance outreach is weak, ensuring last-mile credit delivery to the poorest rural households.

This subsidiary focuses on co-lending and co-investment with banks and NBFCs to accelerate rural and agriculture finance at scale, helping NABARD multiply the reach of its resources.

Established in 2021, NaBFID is a newer addition to the NABARD family, focused specifically on financing long-term infrastructure projects that support India's overall development. It operates more broadly than NABARD's own RIDF.