Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new Central Sector Scheme of financing facility under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs one lakh crore on 9 August 2020.
The scheme will support farmers, PACS, FPOs, 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.
An amount of Rs 1,000 crore has been sanctioned to over 2,280 farmer societies under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund within 30 days of receiving the Cabinet approval for the Central Sector Scheme.
The PM also released the sixth installment under the PM-KISAN scheme of Rs 17,000 crore to nearly 8.5 crore farmers. The cash benefit was transferred directly to their Aadhaar verified bank accounts.
With this transfer, the scheme has provided over Rs 90,000 crore in the hands of more than 10 crore farmers since its launch on 1 December 2018.
The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a mediumlong 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 would be for a period of 10 years from FY2020 to FY2029. Under the scheme, Rs one lakh crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans with interest subvention of three percent per annum and credit guarantee coverage under CGTMSE scheme for loans up to Rs two 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.
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 6,000 per year is provided to eligible beneficiary farmers in three equal installments.