Tomar: More Than 200 FPOs Received Credit Guarantee Cover of Rs 68 Crore in Last 7 Years

In the last seven years, the government has offered a credit guarantee cover of Rs 67.91 crore to more than 200 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). On Friday, this material was presented to the Parliament. The government established a 100 crore credit guarantee fund through the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Association (SFAC) in the 2013-14 fiscal year to finance the project load of FPOs. 

"A credit guarantee cover of Rs 67.91 crore has been issued to 202 Farmer Producer Companies (commonly known as FPOs) so far," Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The minister went on to say that as part of the central initiative, which intends to build up and develop 10,000 FPOs across the country, the Center has created a credit guarantee cover with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). 

A Total Of 10,000 FPOs Will Be Established

The Agriculture Minister had previously stated in response to a written question in the Lok Sabha that "we are resolved to put up 10,000 FPOs." He claimed that the Narendra Modi government had taken numerous initiatives to boost farmers' income.

The Agriculture Minister mentioned the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, National Beekeeping Honey Mission, Kisan Credit Card, e-NAM, and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme as examples of schemes introduced in the interest of farmers. The effort of raising the farmers' income is being done with the support of all of these programmes. 

Farmers' Incomes Are Rising 

Farmers' incomes are steadily improving across the country, especially in Uttar Pradesh, he said. All policies and initiatives have a large budgetary allocation and are backed up by non-budgetary financial resources such as micro irrigation and other comparable services. 

Tomar also mentioned the Rs 1 lakh crore 'Agri Infrastructure Fund,' which will be used to build infrastructure to prevent post-harvest losses. According to him, the Agriculture Export Policy-2018 includes items from several Gujarat districts in order to boost the export of agricultural products in big quantities from Gujarat.