Cabinet expands scope of Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme

New Delhi: To strengthen farm-related infrastructure facilities in the country, the Centre on Wednesday expanded the scope of Rs 1 lakh crore-Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the "progressive expansion in central sector scheme of financing facility under the AIF to make it more attractive, impactful and inclusive", an official statement said.

The government has allowed all eligible beneficiaries of the scheme for creation of infrastructure covered under 'viable projects for building community farming assets'.

The Centre has decided to include integrated primary secondary processing projects in the list of eligible activities under the AIF. However standalone secondary projects would not be eligible and would be covered under schemes launched by the food processing ministry.

The government has also allowed the convergence of Component-A of PM-KUSUM with AIF for farmers/group of farmers/farmer producer organizations/ cooperatives/ panchayats.

In addition to CGTMSE (Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises), the government has proposed to extend AIF credit guarantee coverage of FPOs through the NABSanrakshan Trustee Company Pvt Ltd also.

Since its launch by the Prime Minister in 2020, the AIF scheme has been instrumental in supporting creation of 6,623 warehouses, 688 cold stores and 21 silos projects, resulting in additional storage capacity of about 500 lakh tonnes in the country.

"Rs 47,575 crore has been sanctioned for 74,508 projects under AIF till date. These sanctioned projects have mobilized an investment of Rs 78,596 crore in the agriculture sector, out of which Rs 78,433 crore has been mobilised from private entities," the statement said.