Within two-and-a-half years of the implementation of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), the scheme has mobilized more than Rs.30,000 crore for projects in the agriculture infrastructure sector with a sanctioned amount of Rs.15,000 crore under AIF, according to the govt sources.
AIF is providing all around financial support to the farmers, agri-entrepreneurs, farmer groups like Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs) and many others to create post-harvest management infrastructure and build community farming asset throughout the country, claimed a govt release.
Understanding the demand supply gap between the needs of the consumers and supply of primary processed vegetables from the farmers, Yogesh CB from Mandya district of Karnataka was looking to set up a primary processing centre for vegetables. While looking for the support available from the Government, he came across the AIF scheme in the year 2020. He applied for a loan of Rs.1.9 cr. on AIF portal, which got verified by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and sanctioned by Bank of India very quickly in December 2020.
Yogesh was able to ground his vision with the help of AIF and Ariant Veg Private Limited came into the existence which today supports more than 250 local farmers by providing them seeds and the technology to grow quality vegetables, then they collect the yield from the farmers at a fair price which is then cleaned, sorted, graded, and packed in the processing centre before reaching to the end consumer on a daily basis.
Similarly, Anand Patel, a farmer from Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh established a hi-tech hub where agriculture machinery are provided on the rental basis to the local farmers. This Hi-tech Hub has 12 Farm machinery including combine harvester, thresher, laser land leveler, tractors, zero till seed cum fertilizer drill, mulcher etc. that costs around Rs. 60.82 Lakhs which seemed a lot for a farmer like Mr. Patel. Now he is providing services of these machines to more than 100 small and marginal farmers which helped them in saving a lot of effort, time and money.
Govt claims that Yogesh and Anand are two of more than 20,000 beneficiaries of AIF, whose dream to diversify their profile and take a forward leap in agricultural development has come true through AIF support. AIF is silently changing the landscape of Indian Agriculture through creation and modernization of much needed agriculture infrastructure.
It bears recalling that Agriculture Infra Fund (AIF) is a financing facility launched on 8th July 2020 for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farm assets. Under this scheme, Rs 1 lakh crore is to be disbursed by the financial year 2025-26 and the interest subvention and credit guarantee assistance will be given till the year 2032-33.