{"id":26146,"date":"2025-10-27T11:49:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T06:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=26146"},"modified":"2025-10-28T15:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T09:46:55","slug":"agriculture-infrastructure-fund-aif-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/agriculture-infrastructure-fund-aif-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) Scheme?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) Scheme:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>Central Sector Scheme<\/strong> which was launched in 2020.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective<\/strong>: The scheme shall provide a <strong>medium- to long-term debt financing facility<\/strong> for investment in viable projects for <strong>post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets<\/strong> through interest subvention and financial support.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>duration<\/strong> of the Scheme shall be <strong>from FY2020 to FY2032 (10 years).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Who are eligible?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/primary-agricultural-credit-society-pacs\/\" target=\"_blank\">Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Marketing Cooperative Societies<\/li>\n<li>Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs)<\/li>\n<li>Farmers<\/li>\n<li>Self Help Group (SHG)<\/li>\n<li>Joint Liability Groups (JLG)<\/li>\n<li>Multipurpose Cooperative Societies<\/li>\n<li>Agri-entrepreneurs and Startups<\/li>\n<li>Central\/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership Projects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exclusions<\/strong>: Public Sector Undertakings (<strong>PSU\u2019s<\/strong>) are <strong>directly not eligible<\/strong> under the scheme, but <strong>projects sponsored by the munder PPP are eligible<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>All scheduled commercial banks<\/strong>, scheduled <strong>cooperative banks<\/strong>, Regional Rural Banks (<strong>RRBs<\/strong>), <strong>Small Finance Banks<\/strong>, Non-Banking Financial Companies (<strong>NBFCs<\/strong>), and National Cooperative Development Corporation (<strong>NCDC<\/strong>) <strong>may participate<\/strong> to provide this financing facility.<\/li>\n<li>If required, <strong>need-based refinance support<\/strong> will be <strong>made available by NABARDto<\/strong> all eligible <strong>lending entities,<\/strong> including cooperative banks and RRBs, as per its policy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Features:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>All <strong>loans up to<\/strong> a limit of <strong>\u20b9 2 crores<\/strong> under this financing facility will have <strong>interest subvention of 3% <\/strong>per annum. This subvention will be available <strong>for a maximum period of 7 years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>An <strong>applicant can put up to 25 projects <\/strong>in different locations, and <strong>each of such project<\/strong>s will be <strong>eligible<\/strong> under the scheme <strong>for a loan upto \u20b9 2 crore<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>This limi<\/strong>t of 25 projects is <strong>applicable to private sector entities<\/strong>, such as farmers, Agri entrepreneurs, and start-ups.<\/li>\n<li>This <strong>limitation of 25 projects<\/strong> will <strong>not be applicable to state agencies<\/strong>, <strong>cooperatives<\/strong>, national and state federations of cooperatives, <strong>FPOs<\/strong>, federations of FPOs, <strong>SHGs,<\/strong> and federations of SHGs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Multiple projects in one location are also eligible<\/strong> with an overall cap of \u20b92 crore.<\/li>\n<li>Under the scheme, it is mandatory for<strong> borrowers to contribute at least 10% of total project cost,<\/strong> irrespective of available capital subsidy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The moratorium for repayment<\/strong> under this financing facility may vary, subject to a minimum of <strong>6 months and a maximum of 2 years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>24% of total grants<\/strong>\u2013in\u2013aid under the scheme should be <strong>utilized for SC\/ST entrepreneurs <\/strong>(16% for SC and 8% for ST).<\/li>\n<li>Besides this, lending institutions would ensure <strong>adequate coverage of<\/strong> entrepreneurs belonging <strong>to women, and other weaker segments <\/strong>of society may be provided loans on a priority basis.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credit guarantee coverage<\/strong> will be <strong>available for eligible borrowers<\/strong> from this financing facility u<strong>nder the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme<\/strong> for a loan up to Rs. 2 crores. The <strong>fee<\/strong> for this coverage will be <strong>paid by the Government<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In the case of FPOs, the credit guarantee may be availed from the facility created under the FPO promotion scheme of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation &amp; Farmers Welfare (DACFW).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1<\/strong>: What is a central sector scheme?<\/h3>\n<p>Central Sector Schemes are those that are implemented by a central agency and 100% funded by the center on subjects within the union list.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/industry\/agriculture\/centre-approves-expansion-of-agricultural-infrastructure-fund-scheme-124082800836_1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Centre approves expansion of Agricultural Infrastructure Fund scheme<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) Scheme is a Central Sector Scheme which was launched in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":26147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}