After introducing Pradhan Mantri KIsan SAmman Nidhi in Union Budget 2019, PM Narendra Modi played the farmer card yet again, by introducing AMIF this Wednesday.
State and Union Territory governments will now have an additional fund to take subsidized loans for expanding agricultural markets. The central government on February 7 announced setting up AMIF i.e. Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund. The government has proposed a corpus of ₹ 2000 crore to be set aside for the task. The plan will be executed in collaboration with the rural agri-bank, NABARD.
This scheme is initially ought to benefit a total of 10,000 villages and 585 Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs).
The approval for the scheme was given by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, February 6.
States can use these funds for enhancing infrastructure for agriculture markets including public-private partnerships. It’s a demand driven scheme- the progress depends solely on demands generated by state governments for funds.
Grievances of sugarcane and cardamom farmers allover India laid unsolved even after the extensive farmer-oriented budget, this time. This step might eradicate the root cause of their problems in the future, but it falls short of providing any immediate relief.
Image Credits – India Today
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