New Delhi: Union Animal Husbandry Fisheries and Dairy Minister Giriraj Singh today launched the implementation guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund, AHIDF worth 15 thousand crore rupees.
The fund was approved by the Union Cabinet last month under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan stimulus package for ensuring growth in several sectors.
While interacting with ETV Bharat, Giriraj Singh said that its main objective is to encourage the investment of private traders and MSMEs in dairy, meat processing and animal feed plants, a move which is expected to create 35 lakh jobs.
The Minister said millions of farmers will be benefited once the infrastructure is created and more milk will be processed. This will also increase the export of dairy products which is presently negligible.
He said, "The fund is part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in May to help people affected by the lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19."
"For the first time, we will give interest subvention up to 3 per cent to private players for setting up of processing infrastructure for dairy, poultry and meat," he added.
Giriraj Singh said that the unorganized rural milk and meat sector would be linked to the organized sector, exports to milk and meat sector would be encouraged, availability of multiple animal husbandry products would increase as per the population of the country. Sectors like dairy processing, value-added products, milk powder, cheese etc. would be encouraged, he added.
Apart from this, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana Punjab will be promoted in saltwater fish farming, 2.25 lakh hectares of saline water in these areas where fish farming like Tilapia, Sibas will be promoted.
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