The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister of India approved the continuation of the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) to be implemented under the Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) for another three years up to 2025-26.
About the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund:
- It is a Central Sector Scheme.
- It has been approved for incentivizing investments by individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME, Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) and Section 8 companies to establish
- the dairy processing and value-addition infrastructure
- meat processing and value addition infrastructure and
- Animal Feed Plant.
- Objectives:
- To help increase milk and meat processing capacity and product diversification thereby providing greater access for unorganised rural milk and meat producers to organised milk and meat markets.
- To make available increased price realisation for the producer.
- To make available quality milk and meat products for the domestic consumer.
- To promote exports and increase the export contribution in the milk and meat sector.
- To make available quality concentrated animal feed to the cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig and poultry to provide balanced ration at affordable prices.
- The government of India will provide a 3% interest subvention for 8 years including two years of moratorium for loans up to 90% from the scheduled bank and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), NABARD and NDDB.
- Under this government entities and cooperatives are not eligible to get the benefit of this scheme