Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced the third tranche of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package focussing on agriculture, dairy, animal husbandry and allied activities. The Centre will immediately 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 said
The lack of adequate cold chain and post-harvest management in the vicinity of farm-gate is causing gaps in value chains. The government’s focus has been on short-term crop…