Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday formally launched the recently-announced ₹1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund by handing over ₹1,000 crore to 2,200 farmer societies through a remotely organised function, which was attended by farmers from all over the country.

At the event, the Prime Minister also released ₹17,000 crore to 8.5 crore farmers as the sixth instalment of the PM-Kisan scheme, taking the total amount disbursed under it to ₹90,000 crore since its launch in February last year.

The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, cleared by the Union Cabinet last month, is meant to provide support to farmers, Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), farmer producer organisations (FPOs) and agri-entrepreneurs to build community farming assets and post-harvest infrastructure. These assets are expected to enable farmers to get greater value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage, and increase processing and value addition.

Post-harvest management

Modi also interacted remotely with representatives of three PACS from Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh who are among the initial beneficiaries of the scheme. The societies explained their plans to build godowns, set up grading and sorting units which will help member farmers secure a higher price for their produce.

The Prime Minister reiterated that India has a huge opportunity to invest in post-harvest management solutions like warehousing, cold chain, and food processing, and build a global presence in areas such as organic and fortified foods. He also said that this scheme provides a good opportunity for start-ups in agriculture to avail the benefits and scale their operations, thereby creating an ecosystem that reaches farmers in every corner of the country. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a medium to long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and credit guarantee. The duration of the scheme shall be from FY2020 to FY2029 (10 years). Under the scheme, ₹1 lakh crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans with interest subvention of 3 per cent per annum and credit guarantee coverage for loans up to ₹2 crore.

 

The beneficiaries will include farmers, PACS, Marketing Cooperative Societies, FPOs, self-help groups, Joint Liability Groups, Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups, and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership Projects.

 

 

comment COMMENT NOW