PM Modi Launches Rs 1-Lakh-Crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

NEW DELHI: Prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday formally launched the Rs 1-lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) under which agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups, agri-tech players and farmer groups will have access to credit at subsidised interest for building warehouses, cold storages and other facilities to reduce post-harvest losses.

Modi also announced the release of Rs 17,100 crore to about 8.5 crore farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme.

Under the AIF, the Centre will bear about 3% interest subsidy and up to Rs 2 crore credit guarantee to increase the viability of the projects.

Already, 11 of the 12 public sector banks have signed a memorandum of agreement with the agriculture ministry.

The Centre targets to disburse the entire amount of Rs 1 lakh crore in four years for which Rs 10,000 crore has been sanctioned in the current fiscal and Rs 30,000 crore each has been earmarked for next three years. The moratorium for repayment under this financing facility may vary between 6-24 months.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi said the scheme will provide better warehousing and cold storage facilities for farmers. He said new jobs will be created as food processing and post-harvest facilities are set up in rural areas.

The prime minister said that the scheme will enable startups to scale up their operations and India to build a global presence in organic and fortified food. The fund was launched with 1,128 crore rupees of new loans disbursed to more than 2,200 cooperative societies.

Under the infrastructure scheme, banks and financial institutions will provide one lakh crore in loans to cooperative societies, farmer producer companies, self-help groups, entrepreneurs, startups and infrastructure providers.

The objective is to provide medium to long-term debt financing for setting up of post-harvest infrastructure and community assets for the marketing of farm produce.

On the first day of the launch of the scheme, over Rs 1,000 crore credit was disbursed to 2,280 farmer societies, the government said in a statement.

While farmer producer organisations (FPOs) will avail the credit guarantee facility from the agriculture ministry under the FPO promotion scheme, other eligible borrowers will get it under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for which the government will pay the required fees.

The funds will be provided for setting up of cold stores and chains, warehouses, silos, assaying, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms and ripening chambers, besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 15 had announced the creation of the AIF as part of the R 20 lakh crore relief package amid the outbreak of COVID-19.

Today, only 30 days after Cabinet formally approved the scheme, the first sanction of over Rs. 1000 Crore was made to over 2,280 farmer societies. The event was conducted through video conference and was attended by lakhs of farmers, FPOs, cooperatives, PACS, and citizens joining from across the country.

Prime Minister interacted virtually with 3 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies from Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh who are among the initial beneficiaries of the scheme.

Prime Minister had an engaging discussion with the representatives of these societies to understand their current operations and how they plan to utilise the loan.

The societies informed the  Prime Minister about their plans to build godowns, setup grading and sorting units which will help member farmers secure a higher price for their produce.

The PM-KISAN scheme was launched in December 2018 to provide income support by way of a cash benefit to all landholding farmers (subject to certain exclusion criteria) to enable them to fulfill their agricultural requirements and support their families. Under the scheme, the financial benefit of Rs.6000/- per year is provided to eligible beneficiary farmers in three equal installments.

from League of India