nPrime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the financing facility of Rss 1 lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund on Sunday and also release the sixth instalment of funds of Rss 17,000 crore to 8.5 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme. The move is aimed to boost private investment and generate more jobs in rural areas as the fund will catalyse the creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres and processing units.
The virtual event will be witnessed by lakhs of farmers and cooperatives across the country and will have Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in attendance. The Modi government had in July approved the setting up of an agri-infra fund with a corpus of Rss 1 lakh crore to extend subsidised credit for farm infrastructure projects. The agri-infra fund was part of the over Rss 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, the duration of which will be 10 years till 2029, aims to 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 agri-infra fund was part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Under this, about Rs one lakh crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans to primary agri credit societies, farmer groups, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups and agri-tech players.
Eleven of the 12 public sector banks have already signed MoUs with the Department of Agriculture. A three per cent interest subvention and credit guarantee of up to Rs 2 crore will be provided to the beneficiaries to increase the viability of these projects.