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19. As on 01.12.2021, projects with loans under MIF amounting to ₹ 3970.17 crore have been
approved for 12.81 lakh ha of Micro Irrigation area. Moreover, the Government of India is
promoting micro irrigation viz. Drip and Sprinkler Systems in the Country for enhancing water
use efficiency at farm level under the Per Drop More Crop component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi
Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC) from 2015-16. Under PMKSY-PDMC, as on 14.12.2021,
total area of 59.37 lakh ha has been covered under micro irrigation in the country from 2015-16.

Agricultural Marketing

7.29 Wholesale agricultural marketing is undertaken by the network of 6946 regulated wholesale
markets, set up under the provision of respective State Agricultural Produce Market Committee
(APMC) Act. The Government of India has been working continuously and has taken several
concrete steps to link the farmers with markets in order to help the farmers in trading and
realising competitive and remunerative prices for their produce. For example, APMCs, have
been recognized as one of the eligible entities under Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) to
further strengthen the infrastructure in APMC mandis. All loans under the AIF have interest
subvention of 3 per cent per annum up to a limit of ₹ 2 crores. This subvention is available for a
maximum period of 7 years. APMCs are eligible for multiple projects (of different infrastructure
types) within their designated market area. In such cases, interest subvention for a loan up to
₹ 2 crores will be provided for each project of different infrastructure types e.g. cold storage,
sorting, grading and assaying units, silos, etc. within the designated market area of the APMC.

7.30 Further, Government of India launched National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme in
2016 with the objective of creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate
farmers with remunerative prices for their produce. Under the e-NAM Scheme, Government
is providing free software and assistance of ₹ 75 Lakh per APMC mandi for related hardware
including quality assaying equipment and creation of infrastructure like cleaning, grading,
sorting, packaging and compost unit etc. As on 1st of December, 2021, 1000 mandis of 18 States
and 3 UTs have been integrated with e-NAM platform.

7.31 The Government of India has launched a Central Sector Scheme of “Formation and
Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” to form and promote 10,000 new
FPOs till 2027-28. Under the scheme, the formation and promotion of FPO is based on Produce
Cluster Area approach and specialized commodity-based approach. While adopting cluster-
based approach, formation of FPOs focuses on “One District One Product” to enable product
specialization. One of the objectives of the Scheme is to enhance productivity through efficient,
cost-effective and sustainable resource use and realize higher returns through better liquidity
and market linkages for their produce and to become sustainable through collective action. As of
January 2022, a total of 1963 FPOs have been registered under the scheme. The Government has
established a full-fledged Ministry of Cooperation in July, 2021 with a view to provide greater
focus to the cooperative sector.

Box 1: Sweet Revolution

Keeping in view the importance of beekeeping as part of the Integrated Farming System (IFS) in
the country, government approved the allocation of ₹ 500 crore for National Beekeeping & Honey
Mission (NBHM) for three years (2020-21 to 2022-23). The mission was announced as a part of the