An Overview of the Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF)

• The AMIF scheme is designed to provide financial assistance for the up-gradation of Rural Haats to Gramin Agriculture Markets (GrAMs), creation of electronic display mechanism, linking of GrAMs with APMCs, and up-gradation of 585 e-NAM enabled APMCs.
• It offers State/UT Governments subsidised loans for their proposals aimed at developing marketing infrastructure in 585 Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and 10,000 Grameen Agricultural Markets (GrAMs).
• States can also access AMIF for innovative integrated market infrastructure projects, including Hub and Spoke mode and in Public-Private Partnership mode.
• The interest subsidy is provided by NABARD in alignment with the annual budget released during 2018-19 and 2019-20 and is valid up to 2024-25.

Previously, the development and upgrade of the physical infrastructure of rural haats were managed by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India through States / Union Territories under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). However, under the new system, these tasks will be undertaken through AMIF.

Aims of the Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund Scheme

1. The scheme intends to enhance marketing and supporting infrastructure in Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs) and regulated wholesale markets of APMC. The goal is to improve farmers’ market access, reduce post-harvest losses, minimize marketing cost, and decrease the number of intermediaries in the supply chain, thereby increasing the net income of farmers.
2. It aims to link GrAMs to the e-NAM portal to facilitate online trade of the aggregated produce. This enables farmers to benefit from transparent online trading on the e-NAM platform and achieve a remunerative price through better price discovery.
3. The scheme also focuses on enhancing the farmer-consumer interface through the development of GrAMs as Farmer-Consumer Direct Markets.
4. It seeks to modernize the marketing, processing, storage, and ancillary infrastructure to enhance marketing efficiency. It also aims to promote inter-mandi and inter-State trade transactions by developing adequate logistics.

When will the Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF) Scheme be Implemented?

The Scheme is scheduled to be operational from the period of 2018-19 to 2025-26, which includes a moratorium period of 2 years.

Why is the Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF) Important?

• A network of rural godowns allows small farmers to extend their holding capacity, sell their produce at profitable prices, and avoid distress sales.
• More than 86% of farmers in India are small and marginal, who may not always have the resources to transact directly at APMCs and other wholesale markets.
• The Government of India introduced the ‘Grameen Bhandaran Yojana’ in 2001, which was later incorporated into the “Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)” from 2014.
• The scheme's primary objectives include the creation of scientific storage capacity with allied facilities in rural areas to cater to farmers' various needs for storing farm produce, processed farm produce, agricultural inputs, and more.
• The AMIF was formulated in response to the 2018-19 Union Budget announcement to develop and upgrade the existing 22,000 rural haats. A total of 10,000 rural haats are proposed to be covered under the AMIF during 2018-19 and 2019-20.

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Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF) – UPSC Notes:- Download PDF Here

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