Page 90 - Putting Farmers First

Creation of a start-up ecosystem

Start-ups are making a splash everywhere, and
agriculture is no exception.

Exciting new innovations are rising from rural and
semi-urban areas where youth have closely seen
the problems that farmers face.

Such a start-up ecosystem that solves problems
of farmers with scalable solutions is the need of
the hour.

To further encourage them, 424 start-ups in the
agriculture and allied sectors have been selected for
funding for a sum of Rs 45.38 crore in instalments
and Rs 19.70 crore has been released for funding
these start-ups.

Apart from equity support, these start-ups also
qualify for funding under Agri Infra Fund.

Agricultural mechanization

It is not enough to just speak about stubble
burning but it is more important to institutionally
help farmers find an alternative through funding
and infrastructure.

A new Central Sector scheme was launched in 2018
for in-situ management of crop residue in Haryana,
Punjab, U.P. and Delhi.
Rs 1,726.67 crore has been provided to the States
under this scheme. Out of these funds 28,759
Custom Hiring Centres have been established and
1,56,231 machines have been supplied.

83 | Putting Farmers First