Agri Credit Farming

Over 20,000 agri-infra projects eligible for a credit of ₹15,225 Cr

Over 20,000 agri-infra projects are eligible for credit of ₹15,225 Cr from Centre

Over 20,000 agri-infra projects are eligible for a credit of ₹15,225 Cr from Centre

So far, the centre has approved ₹15,225 crore in credit for over 20,000 projects through the Agriculture Infra Fund (AIF). However, co-operatives have only paid out less than 15% of their approved loans, while banks have paid out close to 80%.

Since it started in July 2020, 46,384 proposals for credit totaling ₹27,452 crore have been sent to the AIF. These proposals are for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farm assets. The amount of credit that has been paid out so far is ₹9,942 crore, which is 65% of the amount that has been approved.

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The co-operative banks have given ₹407 crore loans out of a total of ₹3,044 crore that was approved. On the other hand, public and private banks have given out ₹9,535 crore loans out of a total of ₹12,181 crore that was approved. Under the AIF scheme, the government has set a goal of giving out ₹1 lakh crore in loans by 2025–26, and it will help with interest payments and loan guarantees until 2032–33.

In the two and a half years since the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) has been in place, the scheme has raised more than ₹30,000 crore for projects in the agriculture infrastructure sector. AIF has approved ₹15,000 crore for these projects.

In a statement, the Agriculture Ministry said that the AIF is helping farmers, agri-entrepreneurs, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs), Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), and others build post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets across the country by providing a 3% interest subsidy and credit guarantee support through CGTMSE for loans of up to ₹2 crore.

Yogesh CB from the Mandya district of Karnataka is one of these agripreneurs. He used the AIF portal to apply for a loan of ₹1.9 crore and was approved at an effective interest rate of 5.45% after the subsidy. Now, he runs Ariant Veg Private Limited, which helps more than 250 local farmers grow good vegetables by giving them seeds and the tools they need. It also gets the crop from the farmers so that it can be cleaned, sorted, graded, and packed using the infrastructure built with AIF credit, according to the ministry.

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Using AIF credit, Anand Patel, a farmer from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, set up a high-tech hub where more than 100 local farmers can rent farming equipment, the ministry said. Entrepreneurs like Patel and Yogesh are among the 20,624 AIF recipients who are the real faces of the changes happening in the farm sector, the ministry said.

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