The State Projects Department (SPD) provides loans from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) with the objective of supporting public sector capital investment in rural infrastructure through providing low-cost fund support to State Governments and State-Owned Corporations. Over the years, RIDF has become an important source of public capital formation in the rural infrastructure space.

I. Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)

A major policy initiative for rural infrastructure development has been the setting up of RIDF in NABARD in 1995 for financing rural infrastructure projects. RIDF was set up to fund infrastructure projects in States, which are incomplete due to lack of financial resources. Due to inadequacy of critical infrastructure, banks were unable to channelize their lending to agriculture as per priority sector guidelines.

The Government of India, therefore, announced setting up of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in the budget of 1995-96, to be operationalised by NABARD towards financing of, at that time, the ongoing rural infrastructure projects in the irrigation sector. Subsequently, RIDF was made available for new rural infrastructure projects and its ambit was broad based to cover almost all-important aspects of rural infrastructure.

Resources to RIDF are contributed out of the shortfall in lending to priority sectors by Commercial Banks as stipulated by RBI.

a. Core functions of the Department

The corpus of a particular Tranche of RIDF is decided by Government of India every year. Annual Corpus under RIDF is allocated among all States on the basis of prescribed norms comprising of

• Geographical Area of the State
• Inverse of Composite Infrastructure Development Index
• Share in National Rural Population and Rural poverty rate
• Inverse of Credit/Deposit Ratio and inverse of per capita PS credit
• Performance under RIDF (Average disbursements and utilisation of drawables)
• Average sanctions for Agriculture (including Irrigation) and Drinking Water projects

The amount of contribution by banks to a particular Tranche of RIDF is communicated by RBI based on the level of priority sector shortfall. The concerned banks are called upon by NABARD as and when funds are required for disbursement.

NABARD provides financial assistance to the State Governments for projects covering 39 activities broadly classified under three heads, i.e. Agriculture & Related Sector, Social Sector, and Rural Connectivity.

Eligible projects are prioritised and submitted by the State Governments through their Finance Departments/Nodal Departments to the respective Regional Offices (ROs) of NABARD. The projects are appraised by NABARD’s Regional Offices and forwarded to NABARD Head Office where they are placed before Sanctioning Committee of the Board or Internal Sanctioning Committee (ISC) for consideration for sanction.

Rural Infrastructure Promotion Fund (RIPF) has been created with an initial corpus of Rs 25 crore and operationalised from September 1, 2011 with an objective to promote capacity building among stakeholders as also for supporting innovative/experimental/promotional infrastructure especially in rural sectors. The activities/projects supported under RIPF are in the nature of experimental prototype projects, which are likely to have positive impact on promotion of sustainable infrastructure development in rural and agricultural sectors. Cumulative sanctions as on 31 October2024 stood at Rs. 5,72,216 crore and disbursements against the projects stood at Rs. 4,51,999 crore.

b. Broad achievements under RIDF

RIDF Tranche I was placed with NABARD during 1995-96 with an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore. The annual corpus has now reached to Rs.35000.00 crores under RIDF XXX (2024-25).

Cumulative Sanctions & Disbursements as on 31 December 2024

From RIDF I to XXX, NABARD has sanctioned total 7,84,605 projects involving loan assistance of Rs.5,59,074 crore to State Governments as on 31 December 2024 (including for warehousing projects).

Of this, an amount of Rs.4,37,493 crore (78%) has already been disbursed. In addition, Rs 18,500 crore was sanctioned and disbursed for rural roads under Bharat Nirman. This translates to total sanctions of Rs. 5,77,574 crore and total disbursements of Rs 4,55,993 crore.

c. Sector-wise Share of Cumulative Sanctions

Sector-wise cumulative RIDF loans sanctioned as on 31 December 2024, accounted for:

• Agriculture, irrigation and allied sectors (43%)
• Social sector (21%)
• Rural roads and bridges (36%)

The estimated cumulative economic and social benefits under RIDF as on 31 December 2024 were as under:

d. Benefits of RIDF Projects:

NABARD's support for creation of Rural Infrastructure through RIDF has resulted in considerable benefits such as:

• Commitment of funds under RIDF sanctioned projects has enabled State Governments to take up the implementation more expeditiously
• Financing incomplete projects has resulted in unlocking of investments already made by the State Governments, thus, realising the full benefits of the projects
• Creation of additional irrigation potential, generation of non-recurring employment and creation of jobs has contributed to the economic prosperity in the rural areas
• Monitoring of the projects has resulted in timely implementation of majority of the projects and has reduced the time and cost overrun Completion of projects through RIDF assistance from NABARD has helped in growth of core sectors in rural areas by spurring the demand for credit from Banks.

e. On-going projects and schemes:

State-wise, Tranche-wise details of closed/on-going projects/ schemes and broad sector-wise details are given in Annexure I and II.

• Annexure I
• Annexure II

(ii) Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF)

• LTIF was operationalized in NABARD during 2016-17 for fast tracking the completion of the 99 identified Medium and Major Irrigation projects, spread across 18 states, in mission mode. Subsequently, 04 other projects, viz., Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, North Koel project in Bihar and Jharkhand, Relining of Sirhind & Rajasthan Feeders in Punjab and Shahpur kandi Dam in Punjab were included under the ambit of LTIF.
• During 2016-2021, NABARD has provided loan towards Central share to National Water Development Agency (NWDA), SPV of Govt. of India, as well as State share to willing State Governments with a tenor of 15 years. So far 13 states have executed the MoA to avail funding assistance from NABARD.
• From 2021-22 onwards, the funding arrangement is being continued towards meeting State share only for the 60 ongoing AIBP projects and 85 ongoing CADWM major/medium irrigation projects (out of the 99 irrigation projects) with GoI interest subvention up to 2% only. Funding requirements for central share will be met through budgetary resources of GoI.
• During 2025-26, no loan amount has been sanctioned or released under LTIF for State share as on 31 May 2025. The cumulative loan sanctioned and released as on 31 May 2025 is Rs 85,790.78 crore (Central Share- Rs 46,495.92 crore & State Share- Rs 39,294.86 crore) and Rs 62,792.02 crore (Central Share -Rs 26,500.62 crore & State Share - Rs 36,291.40 crore), respectively.
• Out of the 99 projects, Accelerated Area Benefited Programme (AIBP) component of 58 projects and Command Area Development & Water Management (CAD&WM) component of 16 project have been completed. The funding assistance extended during 2016-23 in respect of 99 irrigation projects has facilitated creation of irrigation potential of 25.20 lakh ha against the targeted irrigation potential of 34.63 lakh ha. Further, 21.15 lakh hectare Culturable Cultivated Area has been developed under Command Area Development &Water Management programme. (Source-MoJS, GoI)

Table: The details of State-wise sanction and release of funds under LTIF as on 31 May 2025 are given as under:

III. Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF)

• MIF with an initial corpus of Rs 5000 crore was operationalized in NABARD in 2019-20 to facilitate State Govts. efforts in mobilizing additional resources for expanding coverage under micro irrigation and incentivizing its adoption beyond provisions of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana-Per Drop More Crop.
• The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India (GoI), has conveyed that the continuation and augmentation of the Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) by an another Rs 5,000 crore (as announced in the Union Budget 2021-22) for the 15th Finance Commission period has been approved by the Union Cabinet in its meeting held on 03 October 2024, with the interest subvention revised to 2% from the earlier 3%. Accordingly, the Board of Directors (BoD) of NABARD, in its 259th meeting held on 12 November 2024, approved the augmentation and continuation of the MIF funding arrangement for State Governments during the 15th Finance Commission period.
• Under the funding arrangement, loans will be extended to participating State Governments with a 2% interest subvention from the Government of India (GoI) starting from October 3, 2024.
• During 2025-26, no loan amount has been sanctioned, and loan amount of Rs 111.08 crore has been released. Cumulative loan sanctioned stood at Rs 4719.10 crore, against which Rs 3750.57 crore has been released as on 31 May 2025.

Table: The details of State-wise sanction and release of funds under MIF as on 31 May 2025 are given as under:

The sanctions made by NABARD till date under MIF envisages expansion of micro irrigation coverage by an area of 22.22 lakh ha. Out of this, an area of 21.69 lakh ha has been covered by the States as on 31 March 2024 (Source-MoA&FW, GoI).

(iv) Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana - Grameen (PMAY-G)

• Government of India launched PMAY–G with effect from 1 April 2016 in order to provide a pucca house with basic amenities like electricity, cleaned safe water, sanitation, LPG under “Housing for all by 2022”, programme for the poor homeless and /or living in dilapidated dwellings in rural areas. Under PMAY-G, NABARD has extended loan from 2017-18 to 2020-21 to National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA), SPV of GoI towards part funding of Central share. The cumulative sanction and disbursement under PMAY-G stood at Rs 61,975 cr Rs 48,819.03 crore respectively. Loan assistance released by NABARD under PMAY-G has facilitated construction of 1.77 crore houses as on 31 March 2022. (Source: MoRD, GoI website).

(v) Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G)

• In order to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and eliminate open defection in rural areas, NABARD has extended loans during 2018-19 and 2019-20 to National Centre for Drinking Water, Sanitation & Quality (NCDWS&Q), a SPV of GoI, towards part funding of Central share under the Scheme. The cumulative sanction and disbursement as on 31 March 2020 under the scheme stand at Rs 15,000.00 cr Rs 12,298.20 crore, respectively.

(vi) Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF)

• In the Union Budget of 2011-12, a special window under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) was announced under Tranche XVII with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore to provide dedicated funds for the creation of a robust warehousing infrastructure in the country.This was continued in the Union Budget 2012-13, with an allocation of Rs 5000 crore under RIDF - XVIII. In order to provide a pointed focus for extending financial assistance to public and private players in the warehousing sector by NABARD, GoI had instituted a separate fund called Warehouse Infrastructure Fund with a corpus of Rs 5000 crore during 2013-14, which was continued during 2014-15 also with a further corpus of Rs 5000 crore. No further addition was made to the corpus. The eligible activities include various storage infrastructure for agricultural commodities, including warehouses, silos, agri-logistic parks, storage infrastructure in market yards & food parks and cold chain activities like pre-cooling units, cold storage, Controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores, reefer vans, bulk coolers, Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) units, chilling infrastructure, etc.

Core functions:

Provide support for creation of scientific storage infrastructure in rural areas

• Provide credit and non-credit support for green field projects of public as well as private sector entities
• For renovation/repairs/ modernisation of existing warehouses
• For upgrading infrastructure/ amenities in the existing warehouses of Primary Agriculture credit cooperative Societies (PACS) and other Co-operative Societies to make them storage worthy.
• Formulate policies/strategies for filling the gap in storage infrastructure in different parts of the country.
• Assess the existing storage capacity and estimate the requirement and potential for storage infrastructure in different states/ districts in the country.

Provide support for accreditation of warehouses in rural areas

• Collaborate with Collateral Management Companies (CMCs), State Governments/ State Owned Corporations for upgrading physical infrastructure of small warehouse owners, including PACS and other cooperatives, and leveraging their warehouse assets for increasing their income (with grant assistance for PACS warehouse accreditation).
• Sensitize and train PACS staff/ warehousemen and cold storage owners and encourage and facilitate accreditation/ registration of their warehouses.
• Map and identify the existing warehouses/ cold storage in rural areas across the country for updating the Warehouse Directory with assistance from NABARD and Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA).

Provide post-harvest liquidity to farmers

• Undertake suitable interventions to popularise storage of produce by farmers, avoiding distress sale and giving better price realisation
• Promote and popularize the issue of Negotiable Warehousing Receipts (NWR) by the accredited warehouses/ cold storages

Improve access of farmers to wider markets

• Engage with commodity exchanges, both future and spot, for developing suitable framework/ contracts to enable farmers to trade on these exchanges (National Agriculture Markets or NAM).
• Evolve a mechanism which would ensure aggregation of the produce of farmers to facilitate trading on the exchanges.
• Identify suitable entities (like a cooperative society, a producers' organization, NGO, CMCs or any other village level/ community-based organization) that could work as aggregators for the farmers.

Support capacity building initiatives of stakeholders

• Organise training/ sensitisation programs for NABARD Officers, both at the Head Office and Regional Offices, with a view to acquainting them with various facets of agricultural storage and marketing.

Broad achievements at a national level:

The brief details of sanctions and disbursements from the fund (31st May 2025) are given below:

• Total allocation: Rs 10000 crore
• Corpus available: Rs 9481 crore (difference is due to the refund of Rs 519 crore under WIF 2013-14 to Commercial Banks)
• Total sanctions: Rs 9474.44 crore
• Total number of projects sanctioned: 7196
• Designed Capacity: 14.50 million MT
• Cumulative disbursement: Rs 9,148.84 crores.

A total of 6134 projects are completed with a capacity creation of 9.92 million MT

On-going projects and schemes

The Fund for supporting creation of infrastructure for storage of agricultural commodities and marketing infrastructure in APMCs is fully committed.

Additional Information

The links for detailed information on WIF are given below:

• Operational Guidelines-Warehouse Infrastructure Fund
• List of Projects Sanctioned under Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (31st May 2025)
• Cumulative Sanctions and Disbursements under WIF 2013-14 and WIF 2014-15 (as on 31st May 2025)

(vi) Food Processing Fund (FPF)

With a view to promote food processing industry in the organised sector on a cluster basis, GoI instituted the Food Processing fund (FPF) with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore during 2014-15 in NABARD for providing affordable credit for setting up of designated food parks notified by the Ministry of food Processing industries (MOFPI), GoI and establishing food processing units therein.

Core Functions:

• Provide credit for establishing infrastructure in Designated Food Parks and processing units therein.
• Formulate policies/ strategies for augmenting the processing infrastructure, creating awareness for value addition, and developing forward linkages for the farmers' produce directly.
• Promote modernization of existing processing units in the designated food parks resulting in technology upgradation, automation, increase in efficiency, improvement in product quality, reduction in cost etc.
• To assist Ministry of Food Processing industries (MOFPI), Government of India, in the effective implementation of Mega Food Park Scheme, Scheme for Creation / Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities (CEFPPC), Scheme for Creation of Agro Processing Clusters and Scheme for Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure by being a member in the respective Inter Ministerial Approval Committees.

Broad achievements at a national level:

The following are the details of the sanctions made from the fund and the processing infrastructure created therein:

• Total Allocation: Rs 2,000 crore
• Total number of projects sanctioned (as on 31st May 2025): 40
• Term Loan sanctioned (as on 31st May 2025): Rs 1179.71 crore.
• Loan disbursed (as on 31st May 2025 ): Rs 830.22 crore
• An area of about 1370.03 acres would be developed in 14 Mega Food Parks (MFP), 09 Agro Processing Clusters (APC), 15 Individual Food Processing Units, and 03 Industrial Food Parks projects which act as Central Processing Centres (CPCs).
• The 14 CPCs of MFP Projects would be supported by 45 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) and several Collection Centres (CCs) to be established at suitable places in the catchment zone of the respective mega food parks. These centres will help in sourcing of agricultural produce directly from the farmers by the processing units to be established in the mega food parks, thereby creating a direct marketing access to the user industry.
• These projects when completed would result in providing diversified and much needed core and processing infrastructure, which will include:
• 2,52,200 MT of dry warehouses for storing raw material and finished goods (for non-perishable products).
• 58,500 MT of silos for bulk storing of agricultural raw material.
• 97,610 MT of cold storage capacity for storing perishable finished products.
• 11,350 MT of freezer capacity for storing finished products requiring freezing temperatures.
• Individual quick-freezing capacity of 9.50 MT per hour for producing Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) fruit and vegetable products.
• Sorting and grading capacity of 142.50 MT of fruits and vegetables per hour.
• Controlled ripening capacity of 1895.00 MT.
• Pulping and aseptic packing of 39.05 MT of fruit pulps per hour.

On-going projects and schemes

The Special Fund to make available affordable credit to agro-processing units being designated as Food Parks is available during 2025-26 also.

Additional Information

The links for detailed information on FPF are given below:

• Operational Guidelines
• Loan Application Format for the Mega Food Park Projects to be implemented by State Agencies
• Checklist of Documents to be submitted in respect of the Mega Food Park Projects of SPVs
• Loan Application Format for the Mega Food Park Projects to be implemented by SPVs
• Checklist of Documents to be submitted in respect of the Mega Food Park Projects of State Agencies
• Loan application format for the Individual Processing Units in Designated Food Park
• Checklist of documents for the Individual Processing Units in the Designated Food Park
• List of loan and security related formats in respect of Mega Food Parks financed with grant assistance from MoFPI
• List of loan and security related formats in respect of the Individual Processing Units in the Designated Food Park.
• Consolidated List of 325 Designated Food Parks as on 15.05.2024 notified by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries
• Food Processing Fund Sanctioned projects as on 30th April 2025.
• Application for Term Loan for Establishing an Agro-Processing Cluster
• Checklist of documents to be submitted Along with the Loan Application Agro Processing Cluster Projects

(vii) Rural Infrastructure Promotion Fund (RIPF)

Rural Infrastructure Promotion Fund (RIPF) has been created with an initial corpus of Rs 25 crore and operationalised from September 1, 2011, with an objective to promote capacity building among stakeholders as also for supporting innovative/experimental/promotional infrastructure especially in rural sectors. The activities/projects supported under RIPF are experimental prototype projects, which are likely to have positive impact on promotion of sustainable infrastructure development in rural and agricultural sectors.

VIDEOS:

• RIDF Digitisation with Dedicated Web Portal and Mobile App by NABARD

Contact Information

Shri. Pushphas Pandey
Chief General Manager
8th Floor, 'D' Wing
C-24, 'G' Block
Bandra-Kurla Complex
Bandra (East), Mumbai 400 051
Tel. No. : 022 68120051 /26539238

Information under RTI – Section 4(1)(b)