Centre decides to set up agri-infra fund of Rs 1 lakh crore to support, farmers, agri-tech startups

The Government of India on Wednesday approved the setting up of an agriculture infrastructure fund with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore, to provide financial support to entrepreneurs, startups, agritech players, and farmer groups for infrastructure and logistics facilities.

A decision in this regard was taken in the cabinet meeting, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Further, the agri-infra fund was part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in response to the COVID-19 disaster.

Briefing the media about the cabinet decisions, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said, "It is a historical decision. This will further the agriculture sector."

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He said that financial facilities of over Rs 1 lakh crore will be provided to primary agri-credit societies, farmers groups, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), agri-entrepreneurs, startups, and agri-tech players.

The funds will be provided for setting up of cold storages and chains, warehousing, silos, assaying, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms, and ripening chambers, besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies, he added.

Earlier this year, during mid-May, Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the breakup of the economic stimulus package summing up to 20 lakh crore as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. The recent announcement is part of the third tranche of the package, which involves agriculture, food processing, and related activities.

The amount is to be broken up for the development of fisheries, both inland and marine, under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, which will also involve the employment of 55 lakh people.

Additionally, the fund was also delegated for the ramping up of the dairy infrastructure, vaccination of livestock, growing of herbal and medicinal plants, and beekeeping as well.

Along with this, a central law is to be formulated and implemented to sell produce at a good price, to provide barrier-free, inter-state trade, and to build the framework for e-trading of agriculture produce.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)