Agriclinics & Agribusiness Centres
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| Agriclinics & Agribusiness Centres |
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| 1. Objectives: |
- To provide gainful employment to agriculture graduates in new emerging areas in agricultural
sector.
- To supplement the efforts of government extension system.
- To make available supplementary sources of input supply and services to needy farmers
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| 2. Concept / Definition: |
Agriclinics: |
| Agriclinics provide expert services / advice to farmers on cropping practices,
technology dissemination, crop protection, market prices / trends and clinical services for animal
health etc. to enhance productivity of crops / animals. |
| Agribusiness Centres: |
| Agribusiness Centres provide input supply, farm equipments on hire and other
services. In order to enhance viability of the ventures, Agriculture Graduates may also take up
agriculture / allied activities, along with Agriclinics / Agribusiness Centres. |
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| 3. Eligibility: |
The scheme is open to Graduates in the filed of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal
Husbandry / Veterinary, Forestry, Dairy, Poultry Farming, pisciculture and other allied
activities. |
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| 4. Eligible activities: |
A large number of activities are eligible for finance under the scheme. An
illustrative list of some important eligible activities is as follows: |
- Agri service centres (group activity)
- Seed processing units
- Micro propagation through plant tissue culture labs and hardening units
- Setting up vermiculture units, production of bio fertilisers, bio pesticides, bio control
agents
- Setting up of apiaries and honey & bee products processing units
- Hatcheries and production of fish fingerlings for aquaculture
- Setting up of IT kiosks in rural areas for access to various Agriculture related portals
- Feed processing and testing units
- Setting up cold chain from the farm level onwards (group activity)
- Post harvest management centres for sorting, grading, standardisation, storage and
packaging
- Maintenance, repairs and custom hiring of agricultural implements/ machinery and micro
irrigation systems etc.,
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| 5. Project cost and Coverage: |
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- Projects may be taken up by Graduates of Agriculture / Allied Sciences either individually or
jointly / group basis.
- The maximum project cost is as follows:
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- Rs.10 lakh for individuals
- Rs.50 lakh for groups
- The groups may be normally of 5 members, of whom one would be a Management Graduate with
qualification / experience in business development and management
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| 6. Lending norms: |
| a). Margin: |
- No margin for loans upto Rs.5 lakh
- For loans above Rs.5 lakh: 15% to 25% of the total project cost
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| b). Security: |
- For loans upto Rs.5 lakh: Only hypothecation of assets; No collateral security taken.
- For loans above Rs.5 lakh: hypothecation of assets purchased out of bank loan and mortgage of
land / third party guarantee at bank’s discretion
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c).Interest rate:
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- As applicable for agricultural loans from time to time
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| d).Repayment: |
- Repayable in 5 to 10 years with a gestation period of upto 2 years, depending upon the activity
and income generation of the project
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