Agrisure (Agri Fund For Start-Ups & Rural Enterprises) Scheme

Quick Facts 

• Purpose: To support innovative, high-risk, high-impact activities in agriculture and allied areas
• Fund's sponsors: Government of India and NABARD
• Investment Manager: NABVENTURES Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD
• Tenure of the Fund: 10 years

Objectives

• Foster investment in agriculture and rural start-ups by supporting Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).
• Strengthen farm produce value chains for better profits through profitable forward and backward
• linkage systems.
• Create jobs for skilled rural and urban youth.
• Retain and attract youth to agriculture

Salient Features

Background: Budget 2022-23 announced a blended capital fund (raised under the coinvestment model via NABARD) to support agriculture and rural start-ups, focusing on farm produce value chains.  Target Beneficiaries: Support 85 start-ups in sectors like Agritech, Food Processing, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, and more.  Legal status of Fund: Fund is registered as a Category-II Alternative Investment Fund with SEBI.  Compontent Schemes  AgriSURE – FoF Scheme Supports Category I & II AIFs investing in Start-ups in preferred sectors.  Investments in SEBI-registered sector-agnostic, sector-specific, and debt AIFs. Corpus: ₹450 crore, and Max Investment per AIF: ₹25 crore or 5% of AIF corpus, whichever is lower.  AgriSURE – Direct Scheme  Direct equity investment in DPIIT-recognized early-stage Start-ups incorporated in India. Corpus: ₹300 crore and Max Investment per Start-up is ₹25 crore, as per AIF regulations.