India. Govt approves ₹1 trillion for agriculture infrastructure fund

The government on Wednesday approved setting up an agriculture infrastructure fund with a corpus of ₹1 trillion to provide financial support to entrepreneurs, start-ups, agri-tech 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.

The Agri-Infra Fund was part of the ₹20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in response to the COVID-19 disaster.

Briefing the media about the cabinet decisions, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said: "It is a historical decision. This will further the agriculture sector."

He said that financial facilities of over ₹1 trillion will be provided to primary agri credit societies, farmers groups, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups and agri-tech players. Loans will be disbursed in four years starting with sanction of ₹10,000 crore in the current year and ₹30,000 crore each in the next three financial years, he added.

he 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, ripening chambers besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies, he added.

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