The proposed Rs 500 crore fund announced in the Budget to strengthen agricultural infrastructure, will promote welfare of farmers and also help in doubling of their income, says Nabard.
In Budget announced today, finance minister Arun Jaitley proposed to launch an 'Operation Greens' on the lines of 'Operation Flood'.
"Operation Greens shall promote Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management. I propose to allocate a sum of Rs 500 crore for this purpose," Jaitley said.
The government also proposed to raise the volume of institutional credit for agriculture sector to Rs 11 lakh crore for the year 2018-19.
"Focus on agricultural market infrastructure and FPOs will improve the farmers' income and make 'Doubling of Farmers' income real," Nabard chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, said in a statement today.
He said emphasis on crucial sectors such as health, education, connectivity will enhance the quality of life in the villages.
Jaitley said the government will extend a favourable taxation treatment to FPOs for helping farmers aggregate their needs of inputs, farm services, processing and sale operations.
He added that many farmers are installing solar water pumps to irrigate their fields and the government will take necessary measures and encourage states to introduce a mechanism through which their surplus solar power is purchased by the distribution companies or licensees at reasonably remunerative rates.
"The scope of Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) in Nabard, set up for meeting funding requirement of irrigation works, would be expanded to cover specified command area development projects," he said.
The finance minister also announced setting up a Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FAIDF) for fisheries sector and an Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) for financing infrastructure requirements of animal husbandry sector.
Total corpus of these two new funds would be Rs 10,000 crore.
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