The Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has rolled out a ₹48 crore infrastructure fund for investment in viable projects in post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets.
The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a Central sector scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture to provide medium to long-term debt financing for viable projects.
The Department of Agriculture in Puducherry is the nodal department for implementing the scheme in the Union Territory.
The maximum loan tenure will be seven years. The other attraction of the scheme is the 3% interest subvention per year on loans up to ₹2 crore. There is also credit guarantee coverage of up to ₹ 2 crore.
The objective is to help create improved marketing infrastructure that would allow farmers to sell directly to a larger base of consumers and increase value realisation and overall income. With investments in logistics infrastructure, farmers will be able to sell in the market with reduced post-harvest losses and a smaller number of intermediaries.
This further will make farmers independent and improve access to the market while access to a modern packaging and cold storage system will allow the farmers to decide when to sell in the market at a better profit.
Moreover, building community farming assets for improved productivity and optimisation of inputs will result in substantial savings to farmers.
Those eligible to avail loans under the scheme are farmers, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Marketing Cooperative Societies, Farmer Producer Organisations, Self Help Groups, Joint Liability Groups, Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups, Central/State agencies and local body-sponsored Public-Private -Partnership ventures.
The scheme covers post-harvest management projects like supply chain services including e-marketing platforms, warehouses, silos, packing houses, assaying units, sorting and grading units, cold chain, logistics, primary processing centres or ripening chambers.
It also is aimed at projects for building community farming assets such as organic input production, bio stimulant production units, infrastructure for smart and precision agriculture and supply chain network for clusters of crops, including export clusters.
Further details are available on agriinfra.dac.gov.in and assistance with the office of the Additional Director of Agriculture in Thattanchavady.