PM Modi launches financing facility worth Rs 1 lakh crore under Agri-Infra Fund

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) by disburing Rs 1,000 crore to 2,280 farmers’ societies with a message to ramp up storage and processing facilities for farm produce.

The Prime Minister launched the AIF formally at a virtual conference that was attended by farmers from across the country and interacted with primary agriculture credit societies from Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh who were among the initial beneficiaries of the scheme.

Modi also released Rs 17,000 crore to about 8.5 crore farmers as the sixth installment under the PM-KISAN scheme.

“The (AIF) scheme will support farmers, PACS, FPOs (farmer producer organisations), agri-entrepreneurs, etc. in building community farming assets and post-harvest agriculture infrastructure. These assets will enable farmers to get greater value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage, and increase processing and value addition,” the Prime Minister said.

Modi also reiterated that India had a huge opportunity to invest in post-harvest management solutions like warehousing, cold chain, and food processing, and build a global presence in areas such as organic and fortified food.

The AIF 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 2020 fiscal to 2029. Under the scheme, Rs 1 lakh crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans with interest subvention of 3 per cent per annum and credit guarantee coverage for loans up to Rs 2 crore.