Rs 5,990 crore allocated for augmenting agri infra, says Minister

TIRUCHY: A fund of Rs 5,990 crore has been allocated for the state for a period of five years to develop agriculture infrastructure to minimise the loss to farmers during post-harvest period, said Minister for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare MRK Panneerselvam here on Friday.

Addressing a conclave on Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, Panneerselvam said that ensuring agri infrastructure near farmlands by the Primary Cooperative Credit Societies, Entrepreneurs and Farmer Producer Organisations is a need of the hour, which would reducing post-harvest losses. “This apart, start-up grants are provided through the fund to the tune of Rs 2 crore for a period of seven years, which would ensure employment opportunities for around 30,000 youth,” the Minister said.

He said that a fund of Rs 5,990 crore has been allotted to the state for a period of five years by the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. “So, the farmer producer organisations, entrepreneurs and individuals can make use of it,” the Minister added.

Later, Panneerselvam told reporters that the state government is committed to augment agri infrastructure to benefit farmers. Due to the monsoon, the harvested crops have been damaged and Chief Minister MK Stalin had asked the department to provide godown facilities to avoid such damage. “The previous government had failed to build any infrastructure for the welfare of farmers and this took a toll on harvested crops during the recent monsoon,” he said.

The Minister assured that the facilities to store the crops would be established wherever needed and a team of officials are in the process of studying the details. Ministers KN Nehru and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and others accompanied him.