Church to promote bank for farmers

KOTTAYAM: The Catholic Church is foraying into the banking  sector with a mission to serve the farmers.  The Pala diocese and the Pala social welfare society will launch the  ‘Farmers’ bank – a farmers’ empowerment initiative,’  which will be   headquartered at the Shalom Centre in Pala.  It will  function with the technical advice of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and other banking institutions in the state.

Church sources said that the bank would help the farmers with multiple functions,  including training, motivating and financing them.  It will start micro-financing at later stages.  

For now, it will offer farm tips on topics like disposal of waste at the source itself and help  procure  farmers’ produce and distribute it.  “The purpose of the bank is to motivate and  create awareness among the farmers coming under the diocese.

The bank will be a one-stop destination to the farmers to know everything about  farming.  It will also generate schemes to finance the farmers and provide scholarships to their  children.  The services of the bank will be available to all sections of  society belonging to the Pala diocese,”  the sources said.