New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday announced a Dairy Processing Infrastructure Fund with Rs 8,000 crore corpus would be set up to promote dairy farmers.

He also announced a plan to create a dedicated micro irrigation fund with initial amount of Rs 5,000 crore under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).

Presenting the budget for the financial year 2017-18 in Lok Sabha, Jaitley said: "My approach in preparing the budget is to spend more on rural areas, infrastructure and poverty alleviation with fiscal prudence."

"For 2017-18 we have proposed to set up Dairy Processing Infrastructure Fund under Nabard, with corpus of Rs 8,000 crore," Jaitley said.

The Finance Minister anticipated that because of better monsoon this year, agriculture was expected to grow at 4.1 per cent in the current year.

He said that issuance of soil health card have gained momentum across the country which benefited the farmers.

"We will set up a mini lab in Krishi Vigyan Kendras to boost issuance of soil health cards," Jaitley said.