Bank of Baroda to promote scientific practices in farming

Bank of Baroda will shortly launch ‘Baroda Kisan Pride’ scheme in Karnataka to encourage farmers to adopt scientific practices in agriculture, said executive director Beena Vaheed in Mangaluru on Tuesday.

In an informal chat with The Hindu, Ms. Vaheed said under the scheme the bank will provide finance to farmers up to 250% of the scale of finance fixed by the State-level or district-level technical committees.

The ED said the bank will shortly sign a memorandum of understanding with the State government’s State Rural Livelihood Mission to finance self-help groups under National Rural Livelihood Mission scheme. The bank has the highest credit linkage to SHGs, she said.

Integration of the bank’s system with Farmer Registration and Unified beneficiary Information System (FRUITS) portal of the State government’s Department of IT will help reduce risk of fraud or misutilisation of land records to get agriculture loans.

The bank will shortly start giving crop loans up to ₹2 lakh through digital mode. The bank is aiming at empowering farmers of Karnataka by providing financial support, technological tools and market access to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability, she said.

The bank is having business of ₹1.5 lakh crore in Karnataka with year-on-year (YoY) growth rate of 12% and market share of 5.69%. As of January 2025, the bank has shown YoY growth of 16% under Retail, Agriculture and MSME segment in the State.

The bank has increased its presence in rural areas of Karnataka from 12 branches, before amalgamation in March 2019, to 282 branches in December 2024. Thus bank’s share of rural branch network in the State is at 41%.

Earlier, Ms. Vaheed inaugurated the bank’s regional office and Baroda Academy at The Hindu building at Jeppu.