Agriculture Infrastructure Fund for Agripreneurs

Brief

The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India has formulated the Central Sector Scheme with an objective to mobilize a medium long-term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects relating to post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets through incentives and financial support in order to improve agriculture infrastructure in the country.

Eligibility

• Post Harvest Management Projects
• Projects on Hub and Spoke Model
• Viable Projects for Building Community Farming Assets

Fund / quantum

• Rs. 1 lakh Crore, to be released on FCFS basis; up to 25 projects per individual beneficiary in diff. locations

Tenure

• 2020-21 to 2029-30 loan disbursement period will be between 2020-21 and 2023-24. Interest subvention and credit guarantee for a loan will be applicable only for 7 years from the date of the first disbursement of the loan.

Benefit tags

• Credit Benefit

Notes

• With the launch of Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, the trained and established agripreneurs have got an opportunity to establish a new unit or scale up the operations of the existing one. With Credit Guarantee, incentive and interest subvention lending institutions will be able to lend with a lower risk to Agripreneurs which was a hurdle earlier. With a dedicated source of funding, agripreneurs can push for innovation in the agriculture sector by leveraging new-age technologies including IoT, AI, etc It will also connect the players in the ecosystem and hence, improve avenues for collaboration between agripreneurs and farmers.

• All loans under this financing facility will have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crore. This subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years.
• Further, credit guarantee coverage will be available for eligible borrowers from this financing facility under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs. 2 crore. The fee for this coverage will be paid by the Government.
• In case of FPOs, the credit guarantee may be availed from the facility created under the FPO promotion scheme of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW).
• Moratorium for repayment under this financing facility may vary subject to a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 2 years.

• Post Harvest Management Projects

• Projects on Hub and Spoke Model

• Viable Projects for Building Community Farming Assets

• Rs. 1 lakh Crore, to be released on FCFS basis; up to 25 projects per individual beneficiary in diff. locations

• 2020-21 to 2029-30 loan disbursement period will be between 2020-21 and 2023-24. Interest subvention and credit guarantee for a loan will be applicable only for 7 years from the date of the first disbursement of the loan.

Online / portal

Official application / information link: https://www.manage.gov.in/aif/AIF%20Brochure.pdf

Source listing: https://www.startupindia.gov.in/content/sih/en/government-schemes.html