(LiveMint)
The government approved a dedicated Rs5,000 crore fund to bring more land area under micro-irrigation as part of its objective to boost agriculture production and farmers income. The fund has been set up under NABARD, which will provide this amount to states on concessional rate of interest to promote micro-irrigation, which currently has a coverage of only 10 million hectares as against the potential of 70 million hectares.
“The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved an initial Corpus of Rs5,000 crore for setting up of a dedicated ‘Micro Irrigation Fund’ (MIF) with NABARD under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY),” an official statement said. An allocation of Rs2,000 crore has been made for this fiscal while Rs3,000 crore has been earmarked for the 2019-20 fiscal. NABARD will extend the loan to state governments during this period.
