`1 lakh-cr PM fund for agri-infra
The Centre on Sunday announced a financing facility of `1 lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund for agri-entrepreneurs, startups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for nurturing farm assets and postharvest management.
The fund, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is part of the government’s “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” initiative to make farmers self-reliant.
These assets will 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, the government said.
“Today, our farmers have a choice. If he wants to deal with his produce in his field, he can. Or he can directly connect with the warehouse or whoever pays the higher price,” Modi said, saying the agriculture sector will benefit a great deal.
A loan amount of `1 lakh crore will be made available to farmers over a period of four years.
While `10,000 crores will be made available between 2020 and 2021, `30,000 crore will be provided in each of the remaining three years. Farmers will also get a subsidy of three per cent on interest.
The PM also released the sixth instalment of `17,100 crores to the bank accounts of over 8.55 crore farmer beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKisan) scheme.
Under the scheme, launched in 2018 and funded by the Centre, each farmer gets direct support of up to `6,000 a year as minimum income support.
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 mentioned that this scheme provides a good opportunity for startups in agriculture to avail the benefits and scale their operations, thereby creating an ecosystem that reaches farmers in every corner of the country. Modi also interacted with farmers from Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh who are among the initial beneficiaires of the credit facility under this new fund through Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) for creating post-harvest facilities.
Citing reasons for poor investment in agri-infrastructure, the prime minister said there was “negligible” investment due to legal hurdles in the wake of a provision of stock limit under the Essential Commodities (EC) Act. “Now, we have surplus production. The stock limit not only affects the farmers but also the country's economy and consumers. But surprisingly the law (EC Act) was still continuing when we have become a surplus producing nation. This law is not required now,” he said.