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The Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) has been conducting awareness programmes for the Equity Grants and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme (EGCGFS).
The programme has been developed for the support farmer producers’ companies (FPCs) through matching grants and linke to a fund to cover banks, which for advancing loans to farmer producer organisations (FPOs) without collaterals.
SFAC in West Bengal already held camps in South 24 Parganas, Bardhaman, Bankura and Puruliya. On Friday, it is being held at Siliguri in Birbhumm district. The state level meetings would culminate in Kolkata on June 27.
The State’s Department of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and some pharmacy companies has participated in the camps along with public sector banks.
The Equity Grant Fund Scheme enables eligible FPCs to receive a grant equivalent in amount to the equity contribution of their shareholder members in the FPC, subject to a cap of Rs 10 lakh.
The scheme is to support nascent and emerging FPCs, which have paid up capital not exceeding Rs 30 lakh as on the date of application.
The Equity Grant Scheme aims at enhancing viability and sustainability of FPCs, increasing their credit worthiness and enhancing their shareholding of members to increase their ownership and participation in the FPC. The Equity Grant shall be a cash infusion equivalent to the amount of shareholder equity in the FPC subject to a cap of Rs 10 lakh for an FPC. The FPC will be required to issue additional shares to its shareholder members within 45 days of receiving the equity grant. The maximum grant per category of shareholder would be Rs 1,000 for an individual and a maximum of Rs 20,000 for a group.
The Credit Guarantee Funds Scheme has been set up with the primary objective of providing a credit guarantee cover to eligible lending institution (ELI) to enable them to provide collateral free credit to FPCs by minimising their lending risks in respect of loans not exceeding Rs 1 crore.
Lending institutions will get a maximum guarantee cover of 85 per cent of the sanctioned credit facility.
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