(a) whether the Central Sector Scheme, namely the setting up of Small Farms Agri-Business
Consortium (SFAC) is being implemented in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether most of the States have since formed State level SFACs;
(d) if so, the details thereof; and
(e) the steps being taken to ensure that all the States form State level SFACs?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI KANTI LAL BHURIA)
(a) & (b): The central sector scheme for setting up of Small Farmers` Agribusiness
Consortium (SFAC) was implemented by Ministry of Agriculture during VIIIth and IXth Plan.
Under the scheme national level SFAC was established at New Delhi and corpus funds were also
made available to those State Governments which came forward with matching corpus for
establishing State level SFACs as counter part agencies. An amount of Rs.7.75 crore has been
released by SFAC for setting up of 18 State level SFACs in the country.
(c) & (d): So far 18 States have established Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium at State
level. The States are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab,
Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh. Action for setting up of State level
SFAC is to be taken by the concerned State Governments.
(e): The central sector scheme has been revised during Xth Plan period (2005-06) with the
objective of promoting agribusiness project development in the country through venture capital
assistance and assistance for preparation of detailed project reports (DPR). State Government
can avail assistance provided under the scheme for strengthening of State level SFACs.