Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) Relaunched

New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying Minister Parshottam Rupala on Wednesday launched the realigned Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) scheme and asked the industry as well as cooperatives to take benefit.

He also released the radio jingle on AHIDF, according to an official statement.

In his address, Rupala said the scheme was started during the Covid period, which was a difficult time for the entire country.

He said the scheme has been realigned and will be implemented for another three years. The industry, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO), dairy cooperatives should take benefit of the scheme.

Recently, the Cabinet approved the realignment of the AHIDF under Infrastructure Development Fund with an outlay of Rs 29,610 crore.

"Now the total fund will be of Rs 29,610 crore, instead of Rs 15,000 crore. In the realigned scheme, Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund has been subsumed.

"Now, the dairy cooperatives will avail of the benefit of interest subvention of 3 per cent under AHIDF," he said.

The dairy cooperatives will also get credit guarantee support under the Credit Guarantee Fund of AHIDF. The scheme will help the dairy cooperatives to upgrade their processing infrastructure with an updated processing technology, which will benefit a large number of milk producers in the country, the statement said.

In the inaugural event, industry associations, NDDB, dairy cooperatives, FPO, and officials from the Northeastern states were also present.

During the interaction, ABIS Export Pvt Ltd, one of the eligible entities, appreciated the role of the scheme in creating infrastructure in the livestock sector and said they will invest Rs 2,000 crore in creating infrastructure, the statement said.

Dishala Livelihood Producer Company Ltd, an FPO, said they have set up a dairy processing and value-addition project at Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, with capacity of 10,000 litres per day under the AHIDF in collaboration with Manthan Organisation.

They have obtained 1.2 lakh interest subvention from the department.

Amba Feed said they have set up 1,20,000 tonnes per annum of animal feed plant in Coimbatore under the AHIDF.

The AHIDF scheme was launched on June 24, 2020 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan initiative. The scheme has already received over 5,000 project proposals so far.

"As the outcome of the scheme, around 15 lakh employment opportunities have been generated so far. Many small and marginal farmers have also benefitted, besides the industries," the statement said.