Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

Why in news?

• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund applications cross the Rs. 8,000 crore mark.

About the fund:

• The fund will have a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to provide financial support to entrepreneurs, start-ups, agri-tech players and farmer producer organisations (FPOs) for infrastructure and logistics facilities.
• The Agri-Infra Fund was part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in response to the COVID-19 disaster.
• Loans will be disbursed in four years starting with sanction of Rs 10,000 crore in the current year and Rs 30,000 crore each in the next three financial years, he added.
• The funds will be provided for setting up of cold storages and chains, warehousing, silos, assaying, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms, ripening chambers besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies.

Prelims Question:

Consider the following statements regarding recently created Agriculture infrastructure fund:
1.The fund has a corpus of Rs.1 Lakh crore.
2.The fund will be available only through farmer producer organisations.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct:
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to Prelims question