GUWAHATI: A loan agreement for 262.40 million US dollar equivalent to Rs 1784 crore was signed
between Union Government, State Government and the World Bank for taking up Assam
Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART). The project period is seven years till 2024.
The Loan agreement was signed by Samir Khare, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr Ravi
Kota, Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Assam and, Hisham Abdo Kahin, acting Country Director,
World Bank on Monday in New Delhi.
The project aims at adding value and improving resilience of selected agriculture value chains. The
project would focus on smallholder farmers and agro-entrepreneurs in targeted districts of Assam.
According to the Project agreement, farmers and entrepreneurs in Assam will be benefitted by
APART through increased price premium of commodities sold, improved market access due to higher
share of selected commodities sold through new marketing channels, and higher number of farmers
adopting climate resilient agricultural technologies.
The project will be implemented in 16 districts of Assam. Over 500,000 farming households,
including 30 per cent of women, will directly benefit from the project. The project would support (i)
value addition in production and post-harvest segments of selected agriculture value chains; (ii)
stimulate establishment of new small and medium agri-enterprises; (iii) facilitate agribusiness
investments through inclusive business models; and (iv) resilience of agriculture production systems to
better manage increasing production and commercial risks associated with climate change. This is
planned to be achieved through a production and enterprise cluster strategy within the targeted value
chains, to generate economies of scale, etc.
This project would facilitate of setting up and strengthening of new institutions such as Assam
Bureau of lnvestment Promotion (ABIP) which will support about 300 agribusiness investments under,.,,
APART, Enterprise Development and Promotion Facility (EDPF) to support about L5O0 Agribusiness ‘
Enterprises. Further the project will also set up dedicated Agribusiness Fund of about Rs 200 crore to
encourage private sector investment in agribusiness in Assam.
The project also aims at increasing the throughput volume by setting up about 100 Farmers
Producers Organizations (FPOs) who will set up adequate number of Common Service Centres in Assam
with a target of 70000 tons of agriculture commodities, 10000 tons of fish and 790 tons of milk per
annum. ln addition, 1.25 lakh farmers will get increased access to financial services with at least about
40000 being women producers. Farmers will also be provided market intelligence information on real time basis along with information on weather forecast.
While thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbanada Sonowal
congratulated the people of Assam stating that this project was timely and would help the efforts of the State Government in doubling the farm income.
Finance Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma has also thanked the Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitely and his team of officers for his support to the prestigious project.