Manzoor-ul-Hassan
Srinagar, Jul 31 : The Jammu and Kashmir government has built only 17 godowns for farmers and other beneficiaries in the union territory (UT) under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) scheme since its inception on April 1, 2001, per official data accessed by the news agency.
These godowns, or storage infrastructure projects, were built between April 1, 2001 and June 30, 2024 and have a storage capacity of 98,027 MT. The central governemnt also provided a subsidy of Rs 8 crore for warehousing facilities in Jammu and Kashmir under the AMI scheme.
Lack of storage facilities is the major issue facing the farmers in J&K, which has about 3.3% of the total geographical area under cultivation and has a foodgrain production of 1.5 million metric tonnes, per the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR).
The UT is also a major producer of apples, which are cultivated on 1.08 lakh hectares with a production of 1.1 million metric tonnes.
Separately, Gujarat built the most godowns (12,376 with a capacity of 60 lakh MT) under the AMI, followed by Madhya Pradesh (8,324 with a capacity of 2.8 crore MT).
Arunachal Pradesh and Goa, on the other hand, fared poorly under the programme, with only one warehouse erected in 23 years with storage capacities of 945 MT and 299 MT, respectively.
In the last 23 years, the AMI scheme has helped set up 48,512 godowns and warehouses across the country, totaling 93.99 million MT in capacity. A subsidy worth Rs. 4,734.73 crore has also been provided.
The AMI is a sub-scheme of the prestigious Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM), under which the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare assists states and union territories to enhance agricultural marketing infrastructure. It also aims at creating scientific storage capacity and promoting pledge financing to boost the farmer’s income.
Under the scheme, the Centre provides subsidies at rates of 25 percent and 33.33 percent on the capital cost of the project based on the category of eligible beneficiaries.
Assistance is available to individuals, farmers, groups of farmers/growers, agri-preneurs, registered farmer-producer organizations (FPOs), cooperatives, state agencies, etc. The scheme is demand-driven.
Further, the government has approved a Central Sector Scheme of Financing Facility, viz., the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), to provide a medium-long-term loan facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest market infrastructure, including warehousing facilities and community farming assets, through interest subvention and financial support.
