Chennai:
With a view to aggressively promote agribusiness project
development in the country, the Government of India (GOI)
has approved a Rs48-crore venture capital assistance to
agribusiness projects and to set up a 'project development
facility' to assist producer groups / organisations in
preparation of economically viable detailed project reports.
The
scheme envisages a single-window approach for extending
venture capital along-with bank term loan / working capital
to the beneficiary. The scheme will be operated by Small
Farmer's Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) and implemented
in close association with nationalised banks, State Bank
of India (SBI) and its subsidiaries and other commercial
banks.
Venture
capital assistance will be available to projects that
are dependant on agricultural or allied produce, provide
assured market to producers, encourage farmers to diversify
to high value crops and are accepted by lending banks
for grant of project term loan after satisfactory techno-commercial
feasibility.
The
amount of venture capital that SFAC will ordinarily provide
to qualifying projects will be 10 per cent of total project
cost or 26 per cent of the project equity or Rs75 lakh
whichever is the lowest. Higher assistance can be provided
to deserving projects on merit and / or to projects that
are located in remote and backward areas, North-eastern
and officially designated 'hill states' and projects sponsored
by states or state SFACs.
The
beneficiary is expected to repay the venture capital in
lump sum to SFAC after full repayment of the Bank's term
loan.
SFAC's
project development facility will also provide financial
support to farmer's, producer groups, units in agri-export
zones, organisations and agriculture graduates in the
preparation of bankable project reports.
The
cost of the proposed agribusiness project has to be above
Rs50 lakh. However, projects valuing Rs25 lakh and above
proposed to be located in backward, hilly and North-eastern
states could also be considered for PDF and venture capital
assistance.
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