Govt to provide soft loans for ginning mills

The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to modernise ginning and pressing factories with adequate amenities for storage and fire fighting. For this, it would provide 50 per cent soft loan to entrepreneurs at 6 per cent from the Agricultural Marketing Fund (AMF).

The decision was taken on Friday at a review meeting of AMF and the AP State Cooperative Bank.

Establishing a modern ginning and pressing mill would involve an investment of Rs 6-7 crore.

The meeting also decided to create fire fighting facilities in all cotton, chilli and fruit market yards. Godown space for 600,000 tonne would be created, including 250,000 tonne by the marketing department and 350,000 tonne by the AP State Warehousing Corporation, on market committee land wherever needed.

The state government has also proposed to allot land to establish terminal markets at Tirupati, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Guntur, according to a press release.