Govt decided to set up an agri-infr'

The government on Wednesday approved setting up an agriculture infrastructure fund with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to provide financial support to entrepreneurs, starts-ups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for infrastructure and logistics facilities.

The government on Wednesday approved setting up an agriculture infrastructure fund with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to provide financial support to entrepreneurs, starts-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 Rs 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 Rs 1 lakh crore will be provided to primary agri credit societies, farmers groups, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups 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 eo e-trading platforms, ripening chambers besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies, he added.