Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a financing facility of one lakh crore rupees under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund for agri-entrepreneurs, startups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for post-harvest management and nurturing farm assets.

Today, only 30 days after the Cabinet formally approved the scheme, the first sanction of over 1000 Crore rupees was made to over 2,280 farmer societies. The event was conducted through a video conference and was attended by lakhs of farmers. Mr Modi also released the sixth installment of 17,100 crore rupees to more than 8.55 crore farmer beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Modi reiterated that India has a huge opportunity to invest in post-harvest management solutions like warehousing, cold chain, and food processing, and build a global presence in areas such as organic and fortified foods.

He also mentioned that this scheme provides a good opportunity for start-ups in agriculture to avail the benefits and scale their operations, thereby creating an ecosystem that reaches farmers in every corner of the country.

The Prime Minister expressed his satisfaction with the pace of implementation of the PM-KISAN scheme. He also noted that the scale of the program is so large that the funds released today have reached more people than the entire population of several countries taken together.

He also congratulated state governments for playing an important role in the implementation of the schemes and assisting farmers through the entire process from registration all the way to disbursals.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was also present on the occasion.