AIF driving surge in rural economic empowerment, says official

Chandigarh, Jan 6 (PTI) The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) is a unique scheme for farmers, driving a surge in rural economic empowerment and establishing better infrastructure projects in the country, according to a senior official.

Under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), farmers are given financial assistance of up to Rs 2 crore for investment in post-harvest management infrastructure and community agricultural assets.

The scheme provides farmer-producer organisations, farmers, self-help groups and cooperative federations with long-term, easy financing for more than 25 types of projects, including warehouses, cold storage units, sorting and grading units, processing facilities, and automation in farming and crop production.

Additional Director in the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Maninder Kaur Dwivedi, was addressing the regional conference of AIF and farmer-producer organisations of several northern states, organised by the Haryana Agriculture Department in Chandigarh.

Farmers, farmer producer organisations, and bankers from eight states, including Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Ladakh UT, and Haryana, participated in the conference, an official statement said.

Dwivedi said the AIF is a unique and ambitious scheme for farmers, through which better infrastructure has been developed across the country.

The scheme has helped farmers become economically empowered, and its positive results are clearly visible.

She said that the central government introduced the AIF to make farmers prosperous.

Under the scheme, support is provided from post-harvest crop management to safe storage and marketing, ensuring better returns for farmers.

The biggest advantage of this scheme is the creation of a value chain from villages to cities, so that even the smallest farmer at the grassroots level benefits, Dwivedi said.

She noted that through the AIF, loans are being provided to nearly 12-13 crore farmers across the country.

In addition, the Pradhan Mantri Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY) has been implemented for aspirational districts by the central government.

One district from each state has been selected under this scheme, and it is being implemented in one district each of Haryana and Punjab, benefiting farmers.

Praising Haryana and Punjab, she said that both states have utilised the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund as per the targets and have benefited the maximum number of farmers.

Addressing the conference, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture, Anbalagan P, said that since the implementation of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund five years ago, crops worth crores of rupees have been saved from post-harvest losses.

He said that if crops are stored safely for a few days after harvesting, farmers can get several times higher prices. Therefore, farmers should definitely connect with this scheme to protect their produce, he said. PTI SUN BAL BAL