The Government has undertaken several initiatives to enhance agricultural infrastructure and ensure better income for farmers through schemes such as Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture(MIDH), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY), Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) etc. The briefdetails of these schemes are as follows: -

(i) Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), a medium-long term debt financing facility through interest subvention and credit guarantee support on loans for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets. Under the scheme, Rs.1 Lakh Crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans with interest subvention of 3% per annum and credit guarantee coverage under CGTMSE for loans up to Rs. 2 Crores to the eligible beneficiaries.  As on 30th June, 2025, Rs. 66,310 Crores have been sanctioned for 1,13,419 projects under AIF These sanctioned projects have mobilized an investment of Rs. 107,502 Crores in the agriculture sector. Major projects sanctioned under AIF include 30,202 custom hiring centres, 22,827 processing units, 15,982 warehouses, 3,703 sorting & grading units, 2,454 cold store projects, around 38,251 other kinds of post-harvest management projects and viable farming assets..

(ii) Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), a sub-scheme of Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM) under which assistance is provided for construction/ renovation of godowns/ warehouses in the rural areas in the States to enhance the storage capacity for agriculture produce. AMI is demand driven scheme in which subsidy is provided at the rate of 25% and 33.33% on capital cost of the project based on the category of eligible beneficiary. Assistance under this scheme is available to Individuals, Farmers, Group of farmers/growers, Agri-preneurs, Registered Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs), Cooperatives and state agencies etc. since inception  i.e.1^st April, 2001 of scheme and up to  30th June, 2025, a total of 49796 storage infrastructure projects (Godowns), with storage capacity of 982.94 lakh MT have been sanctioned under the scheme and subsidy of Rs. 4829.37 Crore has been released.

(iii) National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme, a virtual platform integrating physical wholesale mandis/ markets of different States/ Union Territories (UTs) to facilitate online trading of agriculture and horticulture commodities to enable farmers to realize better remunerative prices for their produce.  As on 30th June, 2025, 1.79 crore Farmers & 2.67 Lakh traders have been registered on e-NAM portal. Total volume of 12.03 Crore MT & 49.15 Crore numbers (bamboo, betel leaves, coconut, lemon & sweet corn) collectively worth approximately Rs.4.39 lakh crore of trade has been recorded on e-NAM platform.

(iv) Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), under which financial assistance for setting up of Post-Harvest Management Infrastructure including cold storage, cold room facilities for horticultural produce @ 35% of the project cost in general areas and 50% in case of hilly and scheduled areas per beneficiary is available. The component is demand/entrepreneur driven through commercial ventures for which Government assistance is credit linked and back ended.

(v) Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under which the funds are released to the State Governments as Grants-in-Aid on the basis of projects in Agriculture & allied sectors approved in the State Level Sanctioning Committee Meeting (SLSC) headed by the Chief Secretary of the concerned State, which is the empowered body to approve projects under the scheme. In this scheme Sates has flexibility and autonomy in the process of selection, planning, approval and execution projects in agriculture and allied sectors as per their priorities. RKVY is primarily a project oriented scheme, the benefit of which is available to all sections of the farming community.

(vi) Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN): Under this scheme, income support of ₹6,000 per year is provided to all land-holding farmer families in three equal installments. As on 30th June, 2025, the benefits of the scheme worth more than ₹ 3.69 Lakh Crore has been provided to beneficiary farmers’ families.             

(vii) Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), launched in 2016, addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. As on 30th June, 2025, 78.41 crore farmer applications enrolled and over 22.67 crore (Provisional) farmer applicants have received claims of over Rs.1,83,259 crores.

Under the above schemes, the following support has been provided to small and marginal farmers in terms of credit, technology, and irrigation Credit Access:

(i) Credit: Through AIF, credit-linked financial support is provided with interest subvention and collateral-free loans up to ₹2 crore under CGTMSE coverage. Priority is given to Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), PACS, SHGs, and agri-entrepreneurs that benefit smallholders. Apart from it, Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme provides short-term, revolving credit for crops, animal husbandry, fisheries, and allied activities. As on 31.03.2025, 7.72 Crore farmers are holding operative KCC.

(ii) Technology Support: AIF promotes infrastructure for precision farming, primary processing, storage, and marketing—facilitating access to modern technology through its online AIF portal.  PMFBY has integrated mobile-based Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs), drones, and remote sensing to speed up claim settlements. Apart from them, Digital Agriculture Mission, Drone Didi and National e-Governance Plan for Agriculture are other technological initiatives to support small and marginal farmers.

(iii) Irrigation:  Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme launched during 2015-16 aims to increase water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies namely Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation systems to benefit the farmers in the country. During the year 2015-16 to 2021-22, the PDMC was implemented as a component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY). From the year 2022-23, the PDMC is being implemented under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

The Government is actively promoting sustainable agriculture and increase productivity in light of recent climate and market challenges. The Initiatives include:

(i) Natural Farming Mission: Launched by the Government of India in 2022-23 to promote chemical-free, regenerative agriculture across the country. It aims to reduce farmers' dependency on chemical fertilizers and pesticides while enhancing soil health, biodiversity, and farm incomes through sustainable practices.

(ii) FPO Policy: FPOs are formed for the purpose of leveraging collectives through economies of scale in production and marketing of agricultural and allied sector. Its objective is to ensure better income for the producers and enable farmer-producers and agrarian communities to enhance productivity through efficient, cost-effective and sustainable resource use.

(iii) Soil Health & Fertility Scheme of Rashtriya Krishi VikasYojana (RKVY): Soil Health Card (SHC) and Soil Health Management (SHM), introduced in the year 2014-15 to assist State Governments to issue Soil Health Cards (SHCs) to all farmers in the country. SHC and SHM has been merged as Soil Health & Fertility of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) from the year 2022-23. Soil Health Cards (SHC) assist States/UTs in promoting Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) through judicious use of chemical fertilizers including secondary and micro nutrients in conjunction with organic manures & bio-fertilizers for improving soil health and its productivity. This scheme has sub-components like setting up/ strengthening of Soil Testing, Fertilizers/ Bio-fertilizers & Organic Fertilizers Quality Control Labs, promoting Micro-nutrients, and testing soil samples to issue Soil Health Cards. Soil Health Card provides information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil and recommendation on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and its fertility. As on 30^th June, 2025, 25.13 crores Soil Health card has been distributed to farmers.

These measures are aimed at making agriculture more productive, adaptive, and remunerative in the face of evolving climate and market conditions.

This information was given by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, shri Shri  Ramnath Thakur in a written reply in Rajya  Sabha today.

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(Release ID: 2148521)