Government may allow select cooperative societies to borrow from all lenders – Gudstory

This will be done by merging two funds, Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) and Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF), a measure that will be announced in the upcoming interim budget.

The outlay is expected to be approximately Rs 29,000 crore including subsidy component for three years till 2026-27.

Currently, cooperatives have access to loans only to NABARD, the country’s top bank for the agriculture sector, and the merger will lead to administrative ease in taking loans in future.

This step has been taken after the expiry of the tenure of AHIDF, which is now being extended for another three years.

“The idea of ​​the merger is that co-operative societies should also be able to borrow directly from banks. Right now, they will have to follow the NABARD route,” said an official, adding, “Budgets for different schemes will be merged.”

Cabinet approved setting up of AHIDF in June 2020 15,000 crores. The fund encourages investment in setting up infrastructure for dairy and meat processing, and facilitates the setting up of animal feed plants in the private sector.

Eligible beneficiaries under the scheme are Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Non-Profit Organizations, Private Companies and Individual Entrepreneurs with minimum 10% margin money contribution. The remaining 90% is the loan component taken from scheduled banks.

Similarly, DPIDF launched in 2017 to create and strengthen milk processing, value addition and cooling facilities for dairy cooperatives, multi-state dairy cooperatives, milk production companies, subsidiaries of NDDB, self-help groups and registered I went. was given an outlay of Rs 11,184 crore including debt component of Rs. 8,004 crore from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

“With an outlay of Rs 29,000 crore, including the subsidy component, AHIDF will be extended for the next three years (2023-24 to 2026-27) and DIDF components will be brought under AHIDF for administrative ease by keeping a single portal and as requested by the cooperatives. has come. There will be no new name as the DIDF components will be brought under AHIDF if approved.

This will be the first time that cooperative societies in the animal husbandry, dairy, fish and poultry sectors will be able to borrow directly from banks other than NABARD,” said another official.

Additionally, the Center is also making changes to the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), which aims to develop and conserve indigenous bovine breeds and increase milk production.

“The plan is working very well,” the first official said. We would like to do some new things under RGM. We will make it, get approval from our department, send it to the expenditure department and then get cabinet approval.”

“We are considering RGM because it works exceptionally well. We are able to spend money and get desirable outputs—production and productivity are constantly increasing. With additional facilities, we would like to see greater absorption of technology, target indigenous breeds more aggressively and ensure that all benefits reach the farmers,” the official said.

Queries sent to the expenditure and animal husbandry and dairy departments remained unanswered till press time.

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Published: 26 January 2024, 10:50 PM IST