Dir Agriculture inaugurates awareness camp on ‘Venture Capital Assistance’

Srinagar, Sep 28: Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal Tuesday inaugurated a district level awareness camp on Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) & Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme (EG&CGF) schemes of Small Farmer’s Agri Business Consortium (SFAC) at Agriculture Complex Lalmandi, Srinagar.

The camp was organized by Project Management Agency (PMA) Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) India Limited New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Director Agriculture said that organizing such programs help capacity building and understanding with different dynamics between the farmers and the Department. He appreciated the organizers and asked them to organize such events in future also.

While expressing his views Senior Regional Manager AFC India Ltd. Shri S.B.Katiyar gave details of two schemes of Small Farmer’s Agri Business Consortium (SFAC) i.e Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme  (EG&CGF) and Venture Capital Assistance (VCA). He said and described, Equity Grant Scheme extent support to the equity base of farmer producer companies by providing matching equity grants.

The Credit Guarantee Fund is providing a credit guarantee cover to the eligible lending institutions (ELI’s) providing collateral free loans to farmer produce companies. The EG scheme enables eligible FPCs to receive a grant equivalent in amount to the equity contribution of their shareholders. In Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme to provide protection to eligible lending institutions ELI’s by extended credit guarantee and covering their lending risks so that the risk of banks can be reduced, he added. 

Katiyar explained venture capital assistance scheme and said in this scheme for setting up agri business projects for increasing rural income and employment, SFAC provides interest free venture capital to agri business projects. Under VCA scheme more than 3000 projects have been approved so far, he added.

Besides others the awareness camp was attended by Chief Agriculture Officer Srinagar Mohammad Younis Chowdary, District Level Manager NABARD, representatives from Lead Bank, SBI and Jammu and Kashmir Bank.