India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has announced plans to boost the country’s burgeoning aquaculture sector through providing appropriate policy, marketing and infrastructure support.

One of the key pillars of the plan, which was announced on 5 July, involves providing credit access for fish farmers, as the Modi government shows its commitment towards the Blue Revolution.

According to Moneycontrol News, the Indian government set up a Rs 7,522 crore special Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) last year and it has set a target to increase the country’s seafood production to 15 million tonnes by 2020 and 20 million tonnes by 2022-23.

The fund will be used to attract private investment in creation and management of fisheries and aquaculture facilities, as well as the acquisition of state-of-the-art technologies. FIDF provides concessional finance to state governments, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs for taking up of the identified. Under the scheme the loan lending will be over a period of five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 with repayments required after 12 years.