New Delhi, Jan 11 (KNN) With the ban of single use plastics in Tamil Nadu, the demand for other alternatives in state has increased, said Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Chief Minister.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the state credit seminar 2019-20, organised by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), he urged NABARD to offer loans to self-help groups that are making alternatives to plastics as well as to companies manufacturing banned plastic products, to help them shift to other businesses.

He said “From January 1, 2019 the State government has banned use of single-use plastics. This has increased the demand for alternatives.”

On the occasion, Chief Minister also released the NABARD’s state focus paper 2019-2020.

According to the paper, the state has an exploitable credit potential of Rs 2,26,906 crore in 2019-2020, an increase of 9.8% over the projections made for 2018-19 (Rs 2,06,684 crore).

Of this, credit to agriculture sector is estimated at Rs1,46,516 crore (64.57%), followed by MSME (Rs 43,036 crore) and other sectors (export, education, housing, renewable energy, micro credit) at Rs 37,353 crore.

Besides, he added that the state has recently released food processing policy and efforts are on to set up mega food parks in 10 districts.

Chief General Manager of NABARD, Padma Raghunathan, pointed that due to lack of adequate cold chain and processing facilities, nearly 35% of fruits and vegetables are lost in storage and transport.

To address the issue, he said “Tamil Nadu government is implementing the project “supply chain management of fruits, vegetables and other perishables‟ with support of Rs 398.75 crore from NABARD.”

Raghunathan said the NABARD will be willing to support eligible designated food parks under food processing fund.