Agri ministry asks banks to promote Agriculture Infrastructure Funds

New Delhi [India], July 12 : Manoj Ahuja, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, launched a new campaign titled BHARAT (Banks Heralding Accelerated Rural and Agriculture Transformation) under the Agri Infra Fund. The campaign aims to mobilize funds from banks and has a target of Rs 7200 crore.

According to an official statement from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, this one month-long Campaign (from July 15, 2023 to August 15, 2023) with a target of Rs 7200 crore was launched through Video Conference attended by more than 100 Banking Executives that included MDs/Chairman, EDs of commercial Banks in public and private sector, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, NBFCs and select cooperative Banks.

While addressing the gathering of Bank Executives and Ministry Officials, Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary (AIF) highlighted the progress made since the inception of this ambitious flagship Scheme.

In his welcome address, he complimented the Banks for their active involvement and support to promote this Scheme which has resulted in creation of more than 31,850 agri infra projects in the country with Rs 24750 crore as loan amount under AIF with an outlay of Rs 42,000 crores.

Expressing satisfaction at the support from the MoA&FW and Project Monitoring Unit of AIF, participating executives from Banks came up with many suggestions to take AIF scheme to newer heights.

Secretary, MoA&FW congratulated the top performing Banks in different categories, namely State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Madhya Pradesh Gramin Bank, Madhyanchal Gramin Bank and Punjab Gramin Bank, for their laudable effort in contributing to take this scheme forward and appealed to all the Banks to achieve targets considering the vast potential for agri infra projects in our country.

The Banks were also advised to carry out an assessment of impact of the projects created under the scheme at ground level.