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The Integrated Scheme for agricultural marketing proposed by the department of agriculture has estimated an investment requirement of Rs 56,000 crore for marketing infrastructure and value chain development during the twelfth plan period. The investments are intended for developing agriculture marketing infrastructure, secondary agriculture and policy for internal and external trade.
This integrated scheme will encompass all other existing marketing infrastructure schemes operational right now Accordingly, the scheme envisages a requirement of 35 million MT storage capacities during XII Plan period based on the recommendation of the Planning Commission Working Group on Warehousing Development and Regulation.
Various activities to be developed under market infrastructure are developing infrastructure for effectively managing marketable surplus of agriculture including horticulture and of allied sectors including dairy, poultry, fishery, livestock and minor forest produce. Besides, basic infrastructure, the scheme will promote innovative and latest technologies in agricultural marketing infrastructure, encouraging private and cooperative sector investments.
Besides, storage, infrastructure facilities will be developed for grading, standardization and quality certification of agricultural produce with the objective of ensuring a price to the farmers commensurate with the quality of the produce, promoting pledge financing and marketing credit, negotiable warehousing receipt system and promotion of forward and future markets to increase farmers’ income.
The scheme has also defined integrated ‘value chain’ in agricultural marketing so as to facilitate proper flow of subsidy to the entrepreneurs. Accordingly, integrated value chain denotes a set of inter-linked chain of activities that bring specific agricultural commodity / commodities from harvesting till retailing and for the purpose of this sub scheme may include those activities where value is added to the produce without change in the form of the produce.
One of the focuses of the agriculture marketing subsidy is to transfer direct benefit to the farmers, integrated value chain projects involving activities from post-harvest stage to the stage of primary processing only are to be covered.
Another focus will be to push for pledge finance to the farmers to prevent them from distress sell and to keep their produce in the storage infrastructure. In fact those who will keep the produce in storage infrastructure will be eligible for pledge loan on hypothecation of their produce.
In order to discourage distress sale by farmers and to encourage them to store their produce in warehouses against warehouse receipts, benefit of applicable interest subvention will be available to banks for extending credit support to small and marginal farmers having Kinas Credit Card against negotiable warehouse receipt for keeping their produce in warehouses.
