Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

 Agriculture Infrastructure Fund 

Prime Minister launched Agriculture Infrastructure Fund yesterday which was approved by the Cabinet one month back. The following are the salient features of the fund.

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a Central Sector Scheme which shall provide medium to long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and financial support. The duration of the Scheme shall be from FY2020 to FY2029 (10 years).
• Under the scheme, Rs. One Lakh Crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Marketing Cooperative Societies, Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), Self Help Group (SHG), Farmers, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Start-ups, Aggregation Infrastructure Providers and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership Project.
• For all the loans under this financing facility, the Government will provide interest subvention of 3% per annum for loans up to Rs. 2 crores and the subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years. Further, credit guarantee coverage will be available to borrowers from this financing facility under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs. 2 crores and the fee for this coverage will be paid by the Government. The total budgetary support from Govt. of India against subvention and guarantee will be Rs. 10,736 crores.

How it will help farmers and boost the Rural Economy:-

• The scheme by way of facilitating formal credit to farm and farm processing-based activities is expected to create numerous job opportunities in rural areas. 
• Storage and processing facilities created through this fund will help farmers get higher prices for their crops as they will be able to store the produce for a long time
• The infrastructure created through this fund will help in reducing wastage and increase processing and value addition
• The scheme would give farmers and the agriculture sector a boost and increase India's ability to compete on the global stage.
• India has huge opportunities to invest in post-harvest management solutions like warehousing, cold chain, and food processing through which it can build a global presence in areas such as organic and fortified foods.

Source: The Hindu