Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced that the Centre will set up a Rs 1 lakh crore agri infrastructure fund for farm-gate infrastructure for farmers. Addressing the media here, she said that financing facility of Rs 1 lakh crore will be provided for funding in agriculture infrastructure projects at the farm-gate and aggregation points such as primary agricultural cooperative societies, farmer producer organisations and agriculture entrepreneurs, among others.
This will provide impetus for development for farm-gate/aggregation point affordable and financially viable post harvest management infrastructure, she said.Observing the lack of adequate cold chain and post harvest management infrastructure in the vicinity of farm gate causes gaps in value chains, Sitharaman said that the fund will be created immediately. She also announced a Rs 10,000 crore scheme for formalisation of micro food enterprises (MFE).The scheme will be launched to help 2 lakh MFEs by adopting cluster-based approach such as mango in Uttar Pradesh, kesar in Jammu & Kashmir, bamboo shoots in North-East, chilli in Andhra Pradesh, tapioca in Tamil Nadu.
( With inputs from IANS )