Cabinet approves expansion of Agri Infra Fund

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the expansion of Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF).

To enhance and strengthen the agricultural infrastructure in the country and support the farming community, the Government has announced a series of measures to expand the scope of Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme, said Centre in a press release.

Viable Farming Assets: To allow all eligible beneficiaries of scheme for creation of infrastructure covered under 'viable projects for building community farming assets'.

Integrated Processing projects: To include integrated primary secondary processing projects in list of eligible activities under AIF. However standalone secondary projects would not be eligible and would be covered under MoFPI schemes.

PM KUSUM Component-A: To allow convergence of Component-A of PM-KUSUM with AIF for farmer/group of farmers/ Farmer Producer Organizations/ Cooperatives/ Panchayats. The alignment of these initiatives aims to promote sustainable clean energy solutions alongside the development of agricultural infrastructure.

NABSanrakshan: In addition to CGTMSE, it is proposed to extend AIF credit guarantee coverage of FPOs through the NABSanrakshan Trustee Company Pvt. Ltd. also. This expansion of credit guarantee options is intended to enhance the financial security and creditworthiness of FPOs, thereby encouraging more investments in agricultural infrastructure projects.