New Delhi: Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has emphasized on the need to ensure that full benefit of one lakh crore rupees Agri Infrastructure Fund reaches to the small and medium farmers. He said that the Prime Minister has allocated such a large fund for the farmers, which is a historical step.
The scheme will support agri-entrepreneurs, Farmer Producers Organization, in building community farming assets and post-harvest agriculture infrastructure. Mr Tomar said this while addressing a meeting with Chief Ministers and State Agriculture Ministers on recent agriculture market reforms yesterday. He said, various reforms and schemes have been launched by the Government to strengthen the vision for the agriculture sector. These include the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, the Scheme for Facilitation and Promotion of ten thousand FPOs, three recent Ordinances, and benefits released under PM-KISAN and Kisan Credit Card for the farmers. The Minister said that the new ordinances brought in by the government are totally farmer-welfare oriented and there is no need to get misled on the issue of Minimum Support Price. He said, procurement from farmers on the basis of MSP will continue as before.
During the meeting, Chief Ministers of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Agriculture Ministers of Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat were also present.