Guarantee for Nafed credit doubled to Rs 19,000 cr for pulses, oilseeds

New Delhi : The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved a proposal to double the guarantee for availing credit by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) from Rs 9,500 crore to Rs 19,000 crore for procuring pulses and oilseeds at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

The government said since the market price of almost all pulses and oilseeds are ruling below MSP, the government guarantee will help in protecting the farmers producing these commodities from making distress sales during the peak arrival period.

"It will also help to provide remunerative prices to farmers to encourage higher investment and production and also to safeguard the interest of consumer by making available supplies at reasonable price with low cost of intermediation," a statement said.

These government guarantees are provided for a period of five years and with waiver of 1 per cent government guarantee fee, it added.