After ensuring that Madhya Pradesh tops the chart as the best performing state under the ₹1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme as the chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Union Agriculture Minister will award the State at a function, scheduled Tuesday.

Other states in the top five ranking under AIF are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

These top five states have 50 per cent share in total ₹47,889 crore sanctioned under AIF, so far, officials said. The AIF scheme was launched in 2020 under which the beneficiaries get loans from banks at 6 per cent interest, after 3 per cent subsidy paid by the Centre to banks.

So far, 9,331 projects have been sanctioned by the Centre for Madhya Pradesh entailing a total investment of ₹11,244 crore out of which the beneficiaries have received approval of ₹7,404 crore of credit at subsidised interest rate under AIF scheme.

Chouhan demitted office as chief minister on December 12, 2023, after a long innings except a brief period when Kamal Nath was the chief minister.

Until November 30, 2023 as high as 7,119 projects were sanctioned by the Centre for Madhya Pradesh and the beneficiaries had received credit approval of ₹5,750 crore.

The Centre has also sanctioned 8,352 projects for Maharashtra entailing ₹9,225 crore investment, of which credit approval for ₹5,195 crore has been sanctioned. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan have received approvals for 5,753, 16,680 and 2,587 projects, respectively.

Punjab has very small-sized units even though the total number of sanctioned projects is quite high, as a result the estimated project cost is ₹6,439 crore under AIF, sources in the state government said.

Since its launch, 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 (lt) -- 465 lt of dry storage and 35 lt of cold storage -- in the country, the agriculture ministry said last week after the Cabinet approved expansion of the scheme to cover some more project criteria.

These sanctioned projects have mobilized an investment of ₹79,023 crore in the agriculture sector, officials said. Asked whether it has reached saturation point because of which scope was expanded, official sources said that over 7,900 applications were pending for approval as on September 1 and there has been a demand for it.

Production units for organic inputs, Bio stimulant, nursery, tissue culture, seed processing, custom hiring centre, infrastructure for smart and precision agriculture, farm/harvest automation, purchase of drones, putting up specialized sensors on field, Blockchain and AI, remote sensing and Internet of Things (IOT), automatic weather station, farm advisory services through GIS applications are some of the items among others included under AIF.

Related Topics