Modi government seems to be serious about its implementation. Within 30 days after its announcement, the government releases 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.
The move would strengthen the existing post-harvest infrastructure facilities and ensure better income for farmers. It was launched through a video conference on the occasion of Balram Jayanthi--a day when farmers worship their plough.
"On this auspicious occasion, a special fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been launched to create agriculture-related infrastructure facilities in the country....This will help in creating better storage facilities and modern cold storage chains in villages. Many employment opportunities will get created in villages," Modi said after the launch.
Modi said the scheme provides a good opportunity for start-ups in agriculture to avail the benefits and scale their operations, thereby creating an ecosystem that reaches farmers in every corner of the country. Modi also interacted with farmers from Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh who are among the initial beneficiaries of the credit facility under this new fund through Primary Agricultural Credit Societies for creating post-harvest facilities.
About the Fund announced on July8:
The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a medium - long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and credit guarantee. The duration of the scheme shall be from FY2020 to FY2029 (10 years). Under the scheme, Rs. 1 Lakh Crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans with interest subvention of 3% per annum and credit guarantee coverage under CGTMSE scheme for loans up to Rs. 2 Crore. The beneficiaries will include farmers, PACS, Marketing Cooperative Societies, FPOs, SHGs, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership Projects.
How the Fund would be beneficial?
The Fund would give easy and economical long term loan to boost up Agriculture infrastructure for post-harvest and food processing industries.
The decision was taken in the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on July 9, which approved the new Pan India Central Sector Scheme-Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
The scheme would provide a medium - 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 loans would be disbursed in four years starting with a sanction of Rs. 10,000 crore in the current year and Rs. 30,000 crore each in the next three financial years. The government said that all loans under this financing facility would have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crores.
The fee for this coverage would be paid by the Government. In case of FPOs the credit guarantee could be availed from the facility created under FPO promotion scheme of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DACFW).
The total outflow as budgetary support from the Government of India (GoI) would be Rs10,736 crore. The government said a moratorium for repayment under this financing, the facility may vary subject to a minimum of 6 months and maximum of 2 years.
Government is expecting that this scheme would generate employment opportunities in the rural area where this farm processing-based industries would start.
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