Chairman KV Shaji – ThePrint – ANIFeed

New Delhi (India), September 3 (ANI): The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore through a mix of infrastructure investment and green bonds, its chairman KV Shaji said.

“We are planning green bonds which will be infra plus green bonds. It will be a mix of infrastructure and green initiatives. The new bonds will have a tenure of over 10 years and… maybe Rs 10,000 crore,” KV Shaji told ANI on Tuesday.

The bonds will have a tenure of over 10 years and will support both infrastructure and green initiatives. This comes after NABARD’s successful social impact bond issue last year that raised Rs 1,040.50 crore.

Last year, NABARD issued Indian rupee-denominated social bonds with an ‘AAA’ rating, raising Rs 1,040.50 crore at a coupon of 7.63 per cent.

Referring to the launch of the AgriSURE Fund, the NABARD Chairman said the Indian financial institution aims to support around 80-100 agri startups through this fund in the next five years.

Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched AgriSURE Fund and Krishi Nivesh portal.

The aim of the AgriSURE fund is to support those start-ups that are working on developing ideas and plans that support agriculture. Through this, the government wants to stimulate the agricultural sector.

“We are looking at early-stage startups with innovative ideas,” said Shaji. “Our goal is to support around 80 to 100 startups, with a ticket size of ₹8 to 10 crores.”

Asked about the priority areas for selecting startups, the NABARD chairman said that priority will be given to startups focusing on climate resilience, organic farming and agro-enterprises in rural areas.

“The focus will be on adding value to agriculture, reducing post-harvest losses and ensuring price stability,” Shaji said.

The AgriSURE Fund includes both direct investments and a fund of funds model.

“We have experience managing both fund-of-funds and direct investments. AgriSURE will focus more on impact financing, combining equity with an equity fund approach,” he explained.

When asked about the timing of funding for these startups, Sh

Aji said NABARD plans to achieve this target in five years.

“We will try to speed up the process because by the time we do that, we will be able to launch the second fund,” Shaji said.

The NABARD chairman assured that the selection of startups for the AgriSURE Fund will follow a transparent process. “We will have an investment committee to evaluate the proposals and will work closely with agricultural universities, state government departments and other stakeholders to identify the most promising innovations,” Shaji emphasised.

“We try to take local interventions where needed because the agricultural landscape in India is very diverse,” he added.

The NABARD chairman said that in view of the ongoing movement towards organic farming, the organisation has been actively promoting organic farming for the last five to six years by initiating numerous proof-of-concept (POC) interventions and pilot programmes to enhance climate resilience of agriculture.

“We are now looking to launch an area-level climate resilience programme for agriculture, which will have a broader scope, potentially at the block or district level, going beyond the village-level interventions,” Shaji explained.

NABARD is already conducting pilot studies on 11 projects involving digital agriculture value chain financing in collaboration with banks and expects results in the next few months.

“If these pilots prove successful, we will expand them to include agriculture value chain financing, which will further strengthen our commitment to sustainable farming practices,” Shaji added. (ANI)

This report is generated automatically by ANI news service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.