Animal husbandry likely to get Rs 2,477 crore

The government is likely to approve Rs 2,477 crore for the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF), agriculture ministry officials said. The fund will finance infrastructure requirement of dairy, livestock and fisheries sector.

The RBI will soon clear the proposal of extending the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to dairy, livestock and fisheries farmers to help them meet their working capital requirement, they said.

“The development of infrastructure in states will improve productivity. With this in mind we will soon be launching the AHIDF. The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) will call meeting on November 6 chaired by the secretary, expenditure. Post this meeting, it will be cleared by the cabinet,” said an official of the agriculture ministry.


The official said the fund will be utilized to preserve and protect livestock through provision of health care. The government institute will use it to develop superior germ plasma for distribution to states and expansion of aquaculture.

“AHIDF is to support animal husbandry infrastructure to increase income of farmers by white revolution. This will be achieved through focus on modernization of the infrastructure and backward forward linkages. The total outlay of the project is Rs 2,477 crore, out which Rs 1,827 crore will be loans from commercial banks, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC),” added the official.