Rs. 676cr allocated for agri market infrastructure in 2015-16

NEW DELHI: Central government has allocated Rs. 675.86 crore for Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) scheme in 2015-16.  Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare,  Parshottam Rupala has informed Lok Sabha on Monday.

The government is also implementing capital investment subsidy sub-scheme “Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)” for construction of scientific godowns and other marketing infrastructure in the country under Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM).

AMI  has been created by merging Rural Godown Scheme / Grameen Bhandaran Yojana (GBY) and Development/ Strengthening of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure, Grading and Standardization (AMIGS).

Under the scheme, capital investment subsidy @ 25% of the capital cost for general category beneficiary and @33.33% for special category beneficiary is provided for construction/creation of scientific godowns and other marketing infrastructure in the country.

However, the assistance for renovation is restricted to storage infrastructure projects of cooperatives only. Currently, AMI scheme is temporarily stopped w.e.f. 05.08.2014 for general category promoters due to exhaustion of funds. However, the scheme is open for SC/ST promoters and for promoters in North-Eastern Region.

A total of 37371 godown projects have been sanctioned for renovation and construction of godowns throughout the country under the AMI scheme till June last.

Further, under Private Entrepreneur Guarantee (PEG) Scheme, storage capacity of 134.83 lakh MT has been constructed.