Rs 1-trn fund, bee keeping: FM Sitharaman's 11 steps to help farmers

Government sets up Rs 1 trillion Agri-Infrastructure Fund, which will focus on short-term crop loan and investment in long-term agriculture infra

The government will set up a Rs 1 trillion fund for agriculture infrastructure and amend a decades-old law to deregulate how farmers sell their produce, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday.

“The aim is to get money into the hands of our farmers,” she said as she announced the government’s third set of stimulus measures. She listed 11 measures at a press conference in Delhi, after announcing earlier in the week a plan to provide free food grains to millions of migrant workers hardest hit by a weeks-long lockdown as well as offer employment under a rural jobs programme.