Govt to create Rs 1 lakh crore Agri-Infrastructure Fund for marginalised farmers: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday introduced the third tranche of the Rs 20 lakh crore financial stimulus package deal focussing on agriculture, dairy, animal husbandry and allied actions. The Centre will instantly create a Rs 1 lakh crore Agri-Infrastructure Fund for farm- gate infrastructure for small and medium farmers, most of whom are marginalised.

“Financing facility of Rs 1,00,000 crore will be provided for funding Agriculture Infrastructure Projects at farm-gate and aggregation points which will include primary agricultural co-operative societies, farmer producer organizations, agricultural entrepreneurs and start-ups. The fund will be created immediately,” Sitharaman mentioned

The lack of ample chilly chain and post-harvest administration within the neighborhood of farm-gate is inflicting gaps in worth chains. The authorities’s focus has been on short-term crop loans whereas funding in long-term agriculture infrastructure has typically not been sufficient, the minister indicated.

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“I have announced 11 measures today, of which 8 are related to strengthening infrastructure, capacities and building better logistics in the country, while the other 3 pertain to governance and administrative reforms,” the finance minister mentioned on the each day information briefing.

This is the third part of bulletins by the Union Finance Ministry elaborating on the Centre’s Rs 20 lakh crore financial stimulus package deal.

A few days earlier, on Wednesday, Sitharaman had mentioned that over the following few days, the finance ministry would maintain each day media briefings to place forth Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s imaginative and prescient of a self-reliant India and share extra particulars on the financial package deal meant to revive the trade in addition to the agricultural sector grappling with a 51-day nationwide lockdown.

The lockdown had been imposed in direction of the tip of March to include the unfold of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The finance minister during the last three days has introduced a slew of measures underneath the large financial package deal of Rs 20 lakh crore that she mentioned would infuse vigour within the financial system and profit varied agricultural, financial and industrial sectors.