Daily Current Affairs 08 February 2024 – IAS Current Affairs
Current Affairs 10 February 2024 focuses on the Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are:
Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)
Source: PIB
GS II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate
Overview
- News in Brief
- Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)
Why in the News?
The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the Fisheries Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) for another 3 years up to 2025-26 within the already approved fund size of Rs 7522.48 crore and budgetary support of Rs 939.48 crore.
News in Brief
- The extension of FIDF will leverage the financial resources, and encourage more investments in the development of infrastructure for fisheries and aquaculture both from the public and private sectors, thereby promoting economic development and expansion of the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
- FIDF not only give impetus for the creation of modern infrastructure for fisheries and aquaculture, but it will also complement and consolidate the achievements of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and Kisan Credit Card (KCC).
- It is an important scheme for bringing in more stakeholders, investments, employment opportunities, augmentation of fish production and transformation in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)
- To address the infrastructure requirement for the fisheries sector, the union Government during 2018-19 created the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) with a total funds size of Rs 7522.48 crore.
- In the earlier phase of implementation of FIDF during the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23, a total of 121 fisheries infrastructure projects with an investment cost of Rs. 5588.63 crore have been approved for the creation of various fisheries infrastructures.
- Extension of FIDF will further intensify the development of various fisheries infrastructures like fishing harbours, fish landing centres, ice plants, cold storage, fish transport facilities, integrated cold chain, modern fish markets, Brood Banks, Hatcheries, aquaculture development, Fish Seed Farms, state of art of fisheries training centres, fish processing units, fish feed mills/plants, cage culture in the reservoir, Introduction Deep Sea Fishing Vessels, disease Diagnostic Laboratories, Mariculture and Aquatic Quarantine Facilities.
Facilities under the Fund
- Under the FIDF, the Department of Fisheries provides interest subvention up to 3% per annum for providing concessional finance by the Nodal Loaning Entities (NLEs) at an interest rate not lower than 5% per annum.
- The loan lending period under FIDF is five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and a maximum repayment period of 12 years inclusive of a moratorium of 2 years on repayment of principal.
- National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad is the Nodal Implementing Agency for the FIDF Scheme.
The objectives of FIDF include
- Creation and modernization of capture & culture fisheries infrastructure
- Creation of Marine Aquaculture Infrastructure
- Creation and modernization of Inland Fisheries Infrastructure
- Reduce post-harvest losses and improve domestic marketing facilities through infrastructure support
- To bridge the resource gap and facilitate the completion of ongoing infrastructure projects.
Daily Current Affairs: Click Here