Center approves creation of Rs 2000 crore corpus for development, upgradation of rural markets

The central government on Wednesday approved the creation of a corpus of Rs 2000 crore for Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF) which will be created with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for development and up-gradation of agricultural marketing infrastructure in Gramin Agricultural Markets and Regulated Wholesale Markets.

AMIF will provide state governments subsidised loans for their proposal for developing marketing infrastructure in 585 Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and 10,000 Grameen Agricultural Markets (GrAMs).

Furthermore, states may also access AMIF for innovative integrated market infrastructure projects including Hub and Spoke mode and in Public-Private Partnership mode. In these GrAMs, physical and basic infrastructure will be strengthened using Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and other government schemes.

After approval of the AMIF scheme, the interest subsidy will be provided by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) to NABARD in alignment with annual budget releases during 2018-19, 2019-20 up to 2024-25.