Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) offers financial support to entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME and Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs)
New Delhi: With a view to provide dedicated focus towards promoting and facilitating investments in the Indian Dairy sector, the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD), has setup Dairy Investment Accelerator under its Investment Facilitation Cell, the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, stated today.
This Investment Accelerator is a cross functional team constituted to serve as the interface with investors. It shall provide support across the investment cycle:
- Offering specific inputs for evaluation of investment opportunities
- Addressing queries about application to govt. schemes
- Connecting with strategic partners
- Providing on-ground assistance with state departments & relevant authorities
Further, the Dairy Investment Accelerator will work with DAHD to organize a series of events with global and local industry participants and one-on-one discussions with the investors to understand their perspectives, facilitate direct interactions with government officials and connects with other players in the industry.
Dairy Investment Accelerator is also generating awareness among investors about Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development fund (AHIDF), the Ministry said. AHIDF is one of the flagship schemes by DAHD, Government of India whereby Rs. 15,000 crore fund has been setup for offering financial support to entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME, Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs), and Section 8 companies. Eligible entities can avail the benefits of the scheme to set up new units or expand existing units in areas of dairy processing & related value addition infrastructure, meat processing and related value addition infrastructure and Animal Feed Plant. The benefits available are:
- 3% interest subvention on loans
- 2-year moratorium with 6-year repayment period
- INR 750 Cr credit guarantee
The DAHD encourages all the private companies, individual entrepreneurs, and start-ups,who are interested in investing in Dairy sector, to reach out to the Dairy Investment Accelerator on dairy-accelerator@lsmgr.nic.in.
India is the largest milk producer contributing 23% of global milk production. Annual milk production in the country has grown by 6.4% (CAGR) in the past 5 years. Dairy is a high priority sector for Government of India due to its socio-economic significance. It is the single largest agricultural commodity contributing 5% of the national economy and employing 80 Mn+ farmers directly. Further, the country boasts a large domestic packaged dairy products of market worth Rs. 2.7-3.0 lakh crore witnessing a strong double-digit growth.
The market growth in Dairy requires support of significant infrastructure investment across processing, chilling, logistics, cattle feed. Further, lucrative untapped opportunities exist in areas such as value-added dairy products, organic/ farm fresh milk and exports. The Dairy sector has seen substantial foreign direct investment (FDI) constituting about 40% of FDIs Indian food sector. To facilitate the infrastructure growth, Central/ State Governments have released various incentives to attract investments in this sector, the Ministry said.
– global bihari bureau
