Odisha Govt Revises Norms For Agri-Entrepreneurs To Avail Capital Investment Subsidy

Bhubaneswar: In order to encourage the agricultural entrepreneurship, the Odisha government has revised the guidelines to avail Capital Investment Subsidy (CIS).

Minister of Agriculture, and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries and ARD Ranendra Pratap Swain, in a release on Monday, said several modifications of the existing guidelines of the Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana (MKUY) have been made on the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

These changes aim at providing greater support to agri-entrepreneurs through enhanced subsidies, expanded eligibility criteria, and inclusion of additional sectors, he added.

Under the revised guidelines, agri-entrepreneurs can now apply for the fresh CIS for both new projects and expansion or upgradation of existing ventures after a period of 10 years from the date of availing full limit of CIS. Now the applicants for self-financed projects can get the CIS exceeding Rs 10 lakh.

The MKUY guidelines have been modified to enable agri-entrepreneurs whose land records are not available in the Bhulekh due to unsurveyed village to apply for various benefits under the scheme.

“To facilitate larger scale projects, the maximum limit for the CIS has been raised from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore per family. The MKUY guidelines have also been modified to allow entrepreneurs for projects upto Rs 50 crore from Rs 20 crore,” the minister said.

In a step towards inclusivity, the revised guidelines now extend eligibility for the CIS to the transgenders who  can avail a subsidy eligibility of 50%. The MKUY guidelines have also been updated to include sericulture-related activities.

From its inception on June 1, 2018 till March 31, 2023, as many as 1,701 agri- entrepreneurs have been created in the state under the programme, Swain said adding that the government has disbursed a CIS amount of Rs 81.22 crore in 2022-23.

About 100 agri-enterprises are enlisted in MKUY relating to different sectors. Those include 25 in agriculture, 27 in horticulture, 15 in AH&VS and 14 in fisheries sector.