Lok Sabha Question No. 3809 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-21
Subject: Role of Agricultural Infrastructure
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Rahul Ramesh Shewale, Pritam Gopinath Munde, Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Dilip Ghosh, Girish Bhalchandra Bapat

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3809

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 21st DECEMBER, 2021

## ROLE OF AGRICUTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

3809.  SHRI RAHUL RAMESH SHEWALE:

DR. PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE:

SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

SHRI DILIP GHOSH:

SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष और कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) Whether the role of infrastructure is crucial for agricultural development and for taking the production dynamic to the next level. If so, facts in this regards
- (b) Whether Ministry has formulated a Central Sector Scheme to mobilize a medium long term  debt  financing  facility  for  investment  in  viable  projects  relating  to  post-harvest management  infrastructure  and  community  farming  assets  in  the  country  particularly  in Odisha.
- (c) if So, details thereof
- (d) Whether the Government has assisted the State Governments for bringing improvements  in  the  infrastructural  facilities  in  the  agriculture  sector,  if  so,  the  details thereof including allotment of funds during the last five years particularly in West Bengal.
- (e)  Whether  the  Government  has  undertaken  any  study  for  assessing  the  impact  of initiative/schemes since 2014 on the income of farmers particularly in West Bengal and if so, details thereof
- (f) The extent to which the farmers will get benefits of the Central Sector Scheme?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष और कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) to (d): Infrastructure plays a vital role in agriculture at every single step like for the supply of input, sowing of crops and for the post-harvest management. Planned investment in agriculture infrastructure sector is important to enhance the productivity and to reduce the post-harvest losses this will also result in capacity building and higher income generation. In India post-harvest losses are relatively higher because of gap of basic agriculture infrastructures like storage houses, pack houses, absence of proper supply chain etc.

In  view  of  above,  Government  of  India  has  formulated  a  Central  Sector  Scheme  of financing  facility  under  'Agriculture  Infrastructure  Fund'  which  was  launched  by  Hon'ble  Prime Minister  of  India  on  9th  August  2020for  creating  required  pre  and  post-harvest  management infrastructures  in  the  agriculture  sector.  Agriculture  Infrastructure  Fund  aims  at  providing  a medium/long term debt financing facility till 2025-2026 through 3% interest subvention and credit guarantee support on loans for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming  assets.  Community  farming  assets  eligible  under  Agri  Infra  Fund  includes:  (i)  Organic inputs  production  (ii)  Bio  stimulant  production  units  (iii)  Infrastructure  for  smart  and  precision agriculture.  (iv)  Projects  identified  for  providing  supply  chain  infrastructure  for  clusters  of  crops including  export  clusters.  (v)  Projects  promoted  by  Central/State/Local  Governments  or  their agencies under PPP for building community farming assets or post-harvest management projects. In addition to the aforementioned community farming assets, farmer communities such as PACS, FPOs, SHGs, JLGs, Multipurpose Co-op societies, Marketing Co-op societies and their federations are  also  eligible  to  get  the  benefit  under  Agri  Infra  Fund  for  creation  of  following  post-harvest management  infrastructures: (i) Supply chain services including e-marketing platforms (ii) Warehouses  (iii)Silos  (iv)Pack  houses  (v)  Assaying  units  (vi)Sorting  &grading  units  (vii)  Cold chains (viii)  Logistics  facilities  (ix)Primary  processing  centres  (x)  Ripening  Chambers.  Since  the inception of the scheme in Aug 2020, loan amounting to Rs. 6182 Cores have been sanctioned for 8630  Projects  across  the  country.  Out  of  which  Rs  77.9  Crores  for  210  projects  has  been sanctioned in the state of Odisha.

The Government has been assisting the state Governments for bringing improvements in the Infrastructure Facilities in the Agriculture Sector through implementing various schemes as per details given below:

- i. In order  to  promote  scientific storage  facilities in rural  areas  of  the  country,  the Government is  already  implementing  Agricultural  Marketing  Infrastructure  (AMI)  which  is  a  subscheme under the Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM).  AMI scheme is a demand driven with back ended credit linked subsidy scheme in which rate of subsidy provided is @ 25% and 33.33% based on the category of eligible beneficiary.  Assistance under the sub-scheme is available  to  Individual,  Group  of  farmers/growers,  Registered  Farmer  Produce  Organizations (FPOs) etc.
- ii. Mission for Integrated Development  of Horticulture (MIDH) under which financial assistance for setting up of Post-Harvest Management Infrastructure including cold storage, cold room facilities for horticultural produce @ 35% of the project cost in general areas and 50% in case of hilly and scheduled areas per beneficiary is available. The component is demand/ entrepreneur driven  through  commercial  ventures  for  which  Government  assistance  is  credit  linked  and  back ended.
- iii. Government of India has launched National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme on 14th April, 2016 with the objective of creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate  farmers  with  remunerative  prices  for  their  produce.So  far,  1000  mandis  of  18 States and 3 UTs have been integrated with e-NAM platform.
- iv. Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM)  is being implemented w.e.f April,2014.The scheme aims  at 'reaching the un-reached' by bringing to the  small and marginal farmers in the core and giving the benefits of  farm mechanization, by Promoting 'Custom  Hiring  Centers'  ,  creating  hubs  for  hi-tech  &  high  value  farm  equipment, distribution  of  various  agricultural  equipment,  creating  awareness  among  stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities, and ensuring performance- testing and certification at designated testing centers located all over the country.
- v. Under  the  Rashtriya  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (RKVY),the  funds  are  released  to  the  State Governments  as  Grants-in-Aid  on  the  basis  of  projects  in  Agriculture  &  allied  sectors approved in the State Level Sanctioning Committee Meeting (SLSC) headed by the Chief Secretary  of  the  concerned  State,  which  is  the  empowered  body  to  approve  projects under the scheme.
- vi. Government is promoting  certified  organic  production  under  the  Mission  Organic  Value Chain  Development for NE Region (MOVCDNER)  since 2015-16. The scheme provide end  to  end  support  to  organic  farmers  from  organic  production  to  certification  and marketing  including  post  harvest  management  support  like  processing,  packaging, storage  etc. Need  based  financial  support  for creating infrastructure facilities like integrated processing unit, integrated pack-house, cold store etc. are provided to States under MOVCDNER

The details of fund allotment for the schemes is placed at Annexure I.

- (e): No specific study for assessing the impact of initiatives/ schemes since 2014 on the income of  farmers  of  West  Bengal  has  been  carried  out.  However,  Impact  Evaluation  Study  of  MIDH Scheme  has  been  taken  twice  since  2014.  As  per  the  report,  the  average  income  of  the horticulture farmers has been increased. Improved horticultural practices and income enhancement have led the farmers to invest further for expansion. Therefore, the scheme has also generated direct and indirect employment in various parts of the country as well.

(f): The  Central  Sector  Scheme  (AIF)  aims  at  providing  a  medium-long  term  debt  financing facility  till  2025-2026  through  3%  interest  subvention  and  credit  guarantee  support  on  loans  for creation  of  post-harvest management  infrastructure  and  community farming assets to  numerous beneficiaries including farmers.

The Fund Allotment details of the Schemes is given as below:

- i. AMI  :The  AMI  sub-scheme  of  ISAM  is  demand  driven;  therefore,  no  State/District-wise allocation has been made. However, during the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), a total of 185 own-funded state agency projects were assisted and subsidy of Rs.36.03 crore have been released. During this period no own-funded state agency projects have been assisted in West Bengal.
- ii. MIDH : Fund Alloted under MIDH is given as under:

| Year    |   Fund Alloted(in crores) |
|---------|---------------------------|
| 2016-17 |                   1660    |
| 2017-18 |                   2198.63 |
| 2018-19 |                   2108.07 |
| 2019-20 |                   1551.55 |
| 2020-21 |                   1511.92 |

Fund alloted and released to West Bengal under National Horticulture Mission, a sub-scheme of Mission for Integrated Development of horticulture is as under (in crores):

| Year    | Allocation    | Allocation   | Allocation   | Release Share)   | (GoI   |
|---------|---------------|--------------|--------------|------------------|--------|
| Year    | Central Share | State Share  | Total        |                  |        |
| 2016-17 | 24.91         | 16.61        | 41.52        | 8.00             |        |
| 2017-18 | 24.91         | 16.61        | 41.52        | 10.00            |        |
| 2018-19 | 44.00         | 29.33        | 73.33        | 15.00            |        |
| 2019-20 | 44.00         | 29.33        | 73.33        | 8.06             |        |
| 2020-21 | 34.00         | 22.67        | 56.67        | 10.00            |        |

- iii. SMAM :Year-wise funds released under SMAM are given below.

| Year wise                |   2014- 15 |   2015- 16 |   2016- 17 |   2017- 18 |   2018-19 |   2019- 20 |   2020-21 | 2021- 22           |
|--------------------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|-----------|------------|-----------|--------------------|
| Funds release d (Crores) |     181.35 |     151.74 |     363.63 |     791.04 |   1126.77 |     992.19 |   1026.63 | 244.96 (till date) |

Year-wise funds released under SMAM to West Bengal are given below.

| Year wise Funds released (Crores)   | 2014- 15 5.98   | 2015- 16 5.65   | 2016- 17 4.0   | 2017- 18 10   | 2018-19 11.25   | 2019- 20 10   | 2020- 21 6.93   | 2021- 22 2.60 (till date)   |
|-------------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------|---------------|-----------------|---------------|-----------------|-----------------------------|

## Annexure I

- iv. e-NAM: Under the e-NAM Scheme, Government is providing free software and assistance of Rs  75.00  Lakh  per  mandi  for  related  hardware  including  quality  assaying  equipments  and creation of infrastructure like cleaning, grading, sorting, packaging and compost unit etc.
- v. RKVY: From 2015-16, the funding  pattern  of  RKVY  changed from  100:0  to  60:40  between Centre and States whereas 90:10 for the North Eastern and Himalayan States.  For UTs, it remains 100% as Central share. During 2021-22 Rs. 1310.38 Crores has been approved for various Sectors in States including 388.54 for West Bengal.

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