`1L cr agri finance plan to boost farm sector’s 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 post-harvest 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,” Mr 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 crores will be provided in each of the remaining three years. Farmers will also get a subsidy of three per cent on interest.

The Prime Minister 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 (PM-Kisan) 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.