Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project

closed

The objective of the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project for India is to ‘add value and improve resilience of selected agriculture value chains, focusing on smallholder farmers and agro-entrepreneurs in targeted districts of Assam’. There are four components to the project, the first component being enabling agri-enterprise development. The objective of this component is to enable investments in agri-enterprises, improve investment environment and promote investment, reduce business and transaction costs, facilitate access to finance for agribusiness MSMEs, and, where appropriate, facilitate process and regulatory changes. The second component is the facilitating agro cluster development. The objective of this component is to enhance competitiveness of agri-enterprises in specific geographic clusters, and upgrade infrastructure for agricultural trade, in these clusters to enable producers and other value chain participants to access new markets. This will be achieved by: mobilizing proximate agri-enterprises, in identified geographic clusters, into Industry Associations (IAs), and building their capacity to undertake joint actions; supporting development of and financing for Agro Industrial Development Plans (AIDPs) laying out joint actions that can be undertaken by IAs to enhance competitiveness; providing a range of Business Development Services to scale up agri-enterprises in the selected clusters; and upgrading and modernizing warehouses, agricultural wholesale markets and rural periodic markets in the cluster, including link roads. The third component is the fostering market-led production and resilience enhancement. The objective of this component is to enable producers of the priority value chains, in the targeted clusters, to take advantage of the rapidly changing market demand, and enhance resilience of agriculture production systems for increasing production and managing risks associated with climate change. Finally, the fourth component is the project management, monitoring and learning. This component will also finance dedicated staffing for the project activities, consultancies, training and related material, office equipment, and incremental operational costs. The project will provide investment and technical support for the establishment of a sound management information system and information and communication technology (ICT) systems and capacity strengthening of key personnel.