The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is the single largest source of subsidised term credit for farm-gate storage, processing and community farming assets in India — a ₹1 lakh crore financing facility where the government pays 3% of your interest and picks up the credit guarantee fee. It is not a subsidy cheque and it is not a grant; it is a loan you take, on better terms than the market offers. This guide sets out exactly what the scheme pays for, who can borrow, what the loan really costs after subvention, and the step-by-step application route on the official portal, with the 2026 timeline and the numbers the government has published.
What the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is / कृषि अवसंरचना कोष क्या है
The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), also called the National Agriculture Infra Financing Facility, was announced by the Finance Minister on 15 May 2020 and launched on 8 July 2020. It is a Central Sector Scheme of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and its purpose is to mobilise medium and long-term debt for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets at the farm gate and at aggregation points.
Two things about the design matter to a borrower. First, the money does not come from the government budget to you — it comes from banks and other lending institutions as a normal term loan, and the government then pays a part of the interest and the credit guarantee fee. Second, it is designed for infrastructure, not for inputs: a warehouse, a cold store, a grading line, a nursery, a custom hiring centre. Working capital, crop loans and consumption needs are outside its scope; those are served by instruments such as the Kisan Credit Card and the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme.
The scheme is operational from 2020-21 to 2032-33. The original financing facility was ₹1 lakh crore. On 13 February 2026 the Prime Minister announced that the AIF loan target would be doubled to ₹2 lakh crore, a decision the Prime Minister’s Office described as aimed at strengthening India’s entire agriculture value chain (PIB, 13 February 2026).
Where the scheme stands in November 2026 / नवंबर 2026 में योजना की स्थिति
This is the part most older articles get wrong, so it is worth stating plainly. Under the scheme guidelines, loan disbursement was to be completed within six years, that is by the end of 2025-26. That window was extended to 30 September 2026, and then extended again. According to a Mint report of 25 October 2026, the Department of Expenditure has conveyed approval for continuing the AIF until 31 March 2027, so that eligible beneficiaries get additional time to undertake agricultural infrastructure projects.
The extension is a temporary continuation on existing terms, not a fresh five-year mandate, and the scheme’s long-term shape is expected to be settled with the next Finance Commission cycle. The Union Budget 2026-27 provided ₹910 crore for the AIF, mainly towards interest subvention and guarantee costs, according to the PRS Legislative Research analysis of the Ministry’s Demand for Grants.
The practical consequence for a farmer or agri-entrepreneur is simple: the 3% interest subvention and the credit guarantee are still on offer, but you should confirm with your bank branch or the State Project Management Unit that fresh sanctions are being issued on the date you apply, before you spend money on a detailed project report.
What the borrower actually gets / ऋणी को वास्तव में क्या मिलता है
The benefit package has three parts, and each has a ceiling.
Interest subvention of 3% per annum on loans up to ₹2 crore per project in one location, available for a maximum period of seven years. If your loan is larger than ₹2 crore, the subvention still applies, but only to the first ₹2 crore; the rest is priced at market rates. This is the single most misunderstood feature of the scheme — the ₹2 crore limit is on the subvention-eligible amount, not on the size of the project or the loan.
A cap on the lending rate. For the subvented portion, the interest rate is capped at one-year MCLR plus 100 basis points, subject to a maximum of 9% per annum. With the 3% subvention, the effective cost to a borrower on that slice works out to roughly 6%.
Credit guarantee instead of collateral. Loans up to ₹2 crore are covered under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), and the guarantee fee is paid by the Government. For Farmer Producer Organisations, cover can be availed through the facility created under the FPO promotion scheme, and NABSanrakshan cover has been extended to FPOs following the Cabinet decision of 28 August 2024.
There is no capital subsidy or margin money under the AIF. The borrower must contribute at least 10% of the project cost. Repayment is structured over a maximum of seven years, including a moratorium of six months to two years, and the subvention runs for that seven-year window from first disbursement.
Who can borrow, and which projects qualify / कौन पात्र है और कौन सी परियोजनाएँ पात्र हैं
Eligible beneficiaries are wider than most farmers assume: individual farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, marketing and multipurpose cooperative societies, self-help groups, joint liability groups, agri-entrepreneurs, startups, Agricultural Produce Market Committees and state agencies, national and state federations of cooperatives, federations of FPOs and federations of SHGs, and central or state agency or local body sponsored public-private partnership projects. Community Level Federations were added to the eligible list in the revised guidelines of May 2025.
A private entity — a farmer, agri-entrepreneur or startup — can put up a maximum of 25 projects, and each must be in a different location with its own Local Government Directory code. That cap does not apply to state agencies, cooperatives, FPOs and their federations, or SHG federations. For APMCs, separate projects of different infrastructure types within the designated market area each qualify for subvention on up to ₹2 crore.
On the project side, the scheme covers post-harvest management infrastructure — warehouses and silos, cold stores and cold chains, pack houses, sorting and grading units, assaying units, ripening chambers, reefer vans and insulated vehicles, primary processing units, and integrated primary plus secondary processing — as well as viable community farming assets such as vermicompost and organic input units, compressed biogas plants, nurseries, tissue culture, seed processing, custom hiring centres with at least four machines, farm and harvest automation, drones and precision agriculture hardware, hydroponics, mushroom, vertical and aeroponic farming, and polyhouses. Solarisation of eligible infrastructure can also be financed, and the scheme converges with PM-KUSUM components A, B and C.
Three exclusions are worth noting. Standalone secondary processing infrastructure is not eligible. Tractors and non-refrigerated logistics are not eligible for individual farmers, though they are for FPOs, PACS, cooperatives and similar group entities as community assets. And working capital is outside the scheme. Where a project also qualifies under the Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization for machinery, or under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure scheme for marketing infrastructure, the capital subsidy from those schemes can be counted towards your 10% contribution — a point worth raising with your bank at appraisal. Cold chain projects can be read alongside our guide to cold chain schemes, and group-run projects with our explainer on formation and promotion of FPOs.
How to apply, step by step / आवेदन कैसे करें: चरणबद्ध प्रक्रिया
Applications are made online through the single-window portal at agriinfra.dac.gov.in. The sequence is as follows.
Step 1 — Register on the portal. Create a beneficiary account with your mobile number and Aadhaar; an OTP completes registration. Keep your entity documents ready at this stage, because the registration type (individual, FPO, PACS, company) decides which fields and uploads the portal will ask for.
Step 2 — Prepare the Detailed Project Report and apply. Fill in the project details, upload the DPR, and select the lending institution and branch you want to borrow from. A DPR template is published on the portal. The DPR is where most applications are won or lost: it must show the asset, its cost, the revenue it will earn, the repayment schedule and the promoter contribution.
Step 3 — PMU verification. The Project Management Unit verifies the application. If the status shows pending information, correct the entry and resubmit; an application left unattended simply does not move forward.
Step 4 — Bank appraisal. The verified application reaches the lender you chose. Visit the branch with KYC, land records or lease deed for the project site, financial statements and the DPR. The sanction decision rests with the bank on project viability and your credit record — the scheme does not guarantee a loan, only the terms on which it is given.
Step 5 — Sanction and disbursement. The scheme guidelines target a sanction within about 60 days where the papers are in order. If a verified application stays pending with a lender for more than 75 days, the portal gives the applicant a one-time option to switch to another bank, a facility introduced in November 2024.
Step 6 — Subvention, guarantee and geo-tagging. The bank claims the interest subvention and the guarantee fee from the Ministry and credits the benefit to your loan account; you do not apply for it separately. The completed asset is then geo-tagged, which is how the scheme monitors that the money built what the DPR promised.
What the scheme has delivered, and what to check before you apply / अब तक की उपलब्धि और आवेदन से पहले जाँच
The government’s own figures show scale. As on 26 January 2026, ₹80,224.15 crore of loans had been sanctioned for 1,50,431 projects since inception, mobilising an investment of ₹1,27,508 crore (PIB, 3 February 2026). By 25 October 2026, lending institutions had sanctioned about ₹1.03 lakh crore for 2,28,428 projects, with more than ₹1.75 lakh crore mobilised for the sector; Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat are among the top five beneficiaries (Mint, 25 October 2026).
The asset mix reported by PIB in February 2026 was 44,243 custom hiring centres, 25,854 primary processing centres, 25,565 farm and harvest automation units, 17,779 warehouses, 4,201 sorting and grading units, precision agriculture infrastructure at 3,549 locations and 2,827 cold storages. The Agriculture Ministry’s stated assessment is that crop, fruit and vegetable losses have fallen by 5% to 15% where this infrastructure has come up.
Before you commit money to a DPR, check four things. Confirm the current sanction position with your bank, because the extension to 31 March 2027 is temporary. Check whether your state offers a top-up subsidy or interest support that can sit on top of the AIF loan — several do, and the scheme explicitly allows convergence with state schemes. Remember that a subsidy received under another scheme counts towards your 10% contribution but cannot substitute for it. And if your project includes a biogas unit or an organic input plant, the GOBARdhan initiative and NABARD’s rural refinance windows are worth checking for additional support before you finalise the financing plan.
Key takeaways / मुख्य बातें
- The AIF is a loan scheme, not a grant: 3% annual interest subvention on up to ₹2 crore per project, for a maximum of seven years, with the lending rate capped at 9%.
- Credit guarantee cover up to ₹2 crore under CGTMSE, with the fee paid by the Government; FPOs can access cover through NABSanrakshan. There is no capital subsidy and at least 10% promoter contribution is mandatory.
- It funds post-harvest infrastructure and community farming assets — warehouses, cold chains, grading and processing units, nurseries, custom hiring centres, precision agriculture — not working capital or consumption needs.
- Apply only through agriinfra.dac.gov.in, with a Detailed Project Report; a verified application pending beyond 75 days can be moved to another bank once.
- The disbursement window has been extended to 31 March 2027 on existing terms, and the loan target was doubled to ₹2 lakh crore in February 2026; confirm with your lender that fresh sanctions are being issued before spending on a DPR.
Sources / स्रोत
- Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare — Agriculture Infrastructure Fund portal and scheme guidelines: agriinfra.dac.gov.in
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