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AgriSURE (Agri Fund for Start-ups & Rural Enterprises) Scheme

Posted 12 Sep 2024

Updated 14 Sep 2024

3 min read

Why in the News?

Recently, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development launched the AgriSURE (Agri Fund for Start-ups & Rural Enterprises) Scheme.

Objective

Features

  • To attract more investment in the agri and rural start-up ecosystem by making contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).
  • To provide liquidity to existing Agri & Agri-tech start-ups that are unable to upscale their business due to dearth of access to various kinds of financing like equity, debt instruments, etc.
  • Encourage young entrepreneurs to take high-risk, while engaging in high-impact activities in agriculture and Agri-tech.
  • To give a boost to opportunities for profitable forward and backward linkage systems making farm produce value chain system stronger and bring in new entrepreneurs into field of agri-business.
  • To enlist more players in the farm related ecosystem for enabling Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)/ Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs)/Primary Cooperative Societies to access latest automated farm processes and machinery through Agri tech Start-ups.
  • To create additional employment opportunities for the technically qualified rural and urban youth to look up to agriculture as a business opportunity.
  • Retain existing rural youth in agriculture and encourage younger generation to take to agriculture by providing newer technologies, techniques and equipment’s at their doorsteps from time to time. 
  • Background: It was announced in Budget 2022-23
  • Aim: To support innovative, technology driven, high-risk, high-impact activities in agriculture and allied areas
  • Sponsoring agencies : Government of India and NABARD 
  • Total Corpus: ₹750 crore (Fund is registered as a Category-II Alternative Investment Fund with SEBI.)
An infographic showing the structure and management of the AgriSure Fund. It shows a total corpus of ₹750 crores, with equal contributions of ₹250 crores each from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), and other financial institution. The fund is managed by NABVENTURES, a subsidiary of NABARD, aimed at supporting agricultural development initiatives.
  • The Fund has two schemes
    • AgriSURE – FoF Scheme:
      • Aim:-funding support to Category I and Category II AIFs that make onward investments in Start-ups. It will  invest in SEBI-registered sector agnostic, sector-specific and debt AIFs
      • Corpus:- : ₹450 crore
      • Maximum investment in a single AIF: 5% of the corpus of AIF or ₹25 crore, whichever is lower.
    • AgriSURE – Direct Scheme:  
      • Aim: direct equity investment in early-stage Start-ups that are recognized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and are incorporated in India.
      • Corpus: ₹300 crore
      • Maximum investment in a single Start-up: ₹25 crore subject to AIF Regulations.
  • Duration of Fund: 10 years from date of inception, extendable by two years
  • Target Beneficiaries
    • Support about 85 Start-ups by the end of the Fund life 
    • Start-ups working in agriculture and rural development include but are not limited to:-
      • Agri-tech, food processing, animal husbandry, fisheries, supply chain management, farm mechanisation, biotechnology, waste management, renewable energy, agri value chain including primary cooperative societies development, support for FPOs, technology support at farm level and climate change.
  • Tags :
  • AgriSURE Fund
  • Agri Fund for Start-ups
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