The Centre today said that NABARD is giving monetary support for development of tribal areas under its Tribal Development Fund (TDF) and 1029 projects have been sanctioned in the past 18 years.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed that these projects are aimed at providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to tribal families.
She informed that the TDF scheme was launched in 2005-06 and since then 6.29 lakh families have benefited from it.
The minister said around 2.9 crore trees have been planted cumulatively through the Tribal Development Programme across India.

In another written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the Finance Minister informed that the agricultural loans for small and marginal farmers are consistently increasing in the country.  She said that in the last three years, the number of agricultural loan accounts of small and marginal farmers has increased to 13.06 crores in 2023-24.