Fruits-vegetable markets to be funded by govt

New Delhi, Nov 2 (UNI) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the funding of terminal markets for fruits, vegetables and other commodities in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model under the National Horticulture Mission.

Such participation would be by way of share in equity upto 49 per cent by the Central/State government, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told mediapersons after a meeting of the CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

An amount earmarked under the scheme included Rs 148 crore for participation in equity capital, Rs one crore for project development assitance and Rs one crore for general awareness and publicity.

The scheme will operate on a Hub-and-Spoke format linked to a number of collection centres having backward linkages with farmers and forward linkages with wholesalers, distributors and exporters.

It envisages that a professionally managed competitive alternate marketing structure of terminal markets would provide multiple choices to farmers for sale of their produce without going through intermediaries.

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