Narendra Singh Tomar says Agriculture Infrastructure Fund a good opportunity for states to make agriculture prosperous
Continuous efforts
being made for the last eight years under the leadership of PM Modi to upgrade
the Agriculture sector: Tomar
Agri Infra Fund awards presented by Union Agriculture Minister
The
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, today
said the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), launched by the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, is scaling new
milestones. Underlining the role of AIF in bridging the Agri Infra gap by empowering
agriculture and villages and boosting private investment, Tomar said the Agri
Infra Fund has been brought to increase agricultural productivity, increase
agricultural exports, make agriculture sector employable and attract the new
generation. Tomar was addressing the Agri Infra Fund Awards
ceremony in New Delhi today.
“In the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, more than Rs
1.5 lakh crore are being invested in Agriculture and allied sectors. This
should be used by the State Governments and banks together in the development
of the Agriculture sector. This is a great opportunity for the States to fill
the gaps in funding agricultural infrastructure. State governments should use
it to make Agriculture strong and prosperous, which will make the country
develop at a faster pace,” he said.
Tomar said that agriculture sector is important for
India. “The primacy of Agriculture has proved itself from time to time.
Agriculture helped India come out of the Covid crisis and made a significant
contribution to the economy at a time when other sectors were badly affected.
Today India is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of agricultural
produce,” said Tomar.
“If you want to move forward in this field, then
you have to identify the challenges and overcome them. There are 86 percent
small farmers in the country, who own less than two hectares of land, while 55
to 60 percent of the country's population is dependent on Agriculture. In such
a situation, continuous efforts are being made for the last eight years under
the leadership of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to upgrade the
Agriculture sector. KCC has been increased from Rs 7 lakh crore to Rs 16.5 lakh
crore. Banks are offering simple loan facility. Along with this, work is being
done to form 10,00 FPOs so that the area under cultivation is increased, the
quality of production is improved and the farmers can get good price for their
produce,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary dwelled on
the role of Banks and Government agencies in empowering farmers and makes the
nation self-sufficient. Prime Minister Modi took a bold step by paving easy
farm loans as he scrapped the need for collateral, saying the Government of
India will stand guarantee, he said.
In his address, Secretary, DA&FW, Manoj Ahuja, called for improved
monitoring to make the loan process faster in line with the promptness of the
portal based loan approval mechanism.
Joint Secretary, DA&FW, Shri Samuel Praveen Kumar made a detailed
presentation on the two year-journey of AIF. While showering accolades on the
Bankers and State Governments for their contribution, he urged them to reinvigorate
their teams to make the on-going NOBOL (Nationwide One Branch One Loan)
Campaign a grand success.
On the occasion, Shri Tomar gave away the awards under
various categories to honour Banks and State Governments for their valuable
contribution in financing under the Central Sector Scheme of ‘Agriculture
Infrastructure Fund’.
Among the Best Performing Banks, State Bank of India was awarded as
numero uno followed by Punjab National Bank and Bank of India. In the second
category where banks were awarded for their valuable contribution, Bank of
Baroda followed by Central Bank of India, Canara Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank
were honoured. In the Target Achievers Category during the Campaign, awarded
Banks were Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of Maharashtra,
Punjab & Sind Bank and Karnataka Bank. Among the Best Performing Regional
Rural Banks, Madhya Pradesh Gramin Bank followed by Madhyanchal Gramin Bank,
Maharashtra Gramin Bank, Baroda Rajasthan Kshetriya Gramin Bank were awarded.
In the State category, Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the best performing
State, whereas Andhra Pradesh was recognised as best performer in sanction of
PACS applications. As the best performer in faster disposal of PACS
applications, Karnataka was awarded and Rajasthan was declared the Rising State
under AIF. NABARD Consultancy services, the Knowledge Partner for this Scheme
was honoured for the laudable contribution in carrying forward the Scheme.
Tomar and General Manager, Bank of India also handed over the sanction
letter to one of the Beneficiaries of Drone project. Later, the Award winning
Bankers and States and successful beneficiaries shared their experience with
the audience.
Additional Secretary Abhilaksh Likhi, Senior Officials from the Ministry
and Government Officials from various States, Top Executives and senior
officials from Banks, NABARD, NABCONS and Beneficiaries of AIF scheme and
others participants joined the event.
Agri Infrastructure Fund, under the ambitious Aatmanirbhar Bharat
Package as a dedicated central scheme providing medium-long term credit
facility for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community
farming assets, will be celebrating its 2nd foundation
day next month. This facility comes with financial support by way of
three percent Interest subvention from Government and credit guarantee by
CGTMSE up to Rupees 2 crore. This scheme can be converged with most of the
existing Central schemes in terms of combination of benefits of different
schemes. This has immensely benefitted stakeholders in the agricultural
ecosystem - Farmers, Agri-entrepreneur, FPO, SHG, JLG, PACS, APMC, Startups,
Central Marketing Cooperative Societies and State Agencies.
As of now, there has been sanction of 13,700 projects, costing
investment of around Rs 17,500 crore with a sanction of Rs 10,131 crore loans.
On an average 30 agriculture infrastructure projects per day are being
sanctioned under the scheme all over the country in shape of warehouses,
assaying units, primary processing units, custom hiring centres, sorting &
grading units, cold store and cold chain projects, bio-stimulant manufacturing
facilities, seed processing units, etc. which will have huge impact in changing
the agriculture landscape of the country.