ITC, Pepsi et al to deepen rural outreach For the first time, the Centre plans to partly route its farm subsidies through large companies with expertise in rural linkages, such as Nestle, ITC, Adani, Marico, Tata Chemicals and PepsiCo. A blueprint is being created under which the government will partly fund agri-projects of companies. These companies will, in turn, have to deliver measurable increase in yield, infrastructure and incomes of at least 10,000 farmers each, said a senior official in the ministry of agriculture, who did not wish to be named. The expenditure on each farmer is expected to be . 1 lakh over three years, of which the Centre will pay half. The rest has to be arranged by the company by creating a consortium of lenders to the project and through its own resources. The government’s target is to reach 1 million farmers over the next five years with a kitty of . 5,000 crore. If the company meets its targets, it will receive 8% of the project cost as reimbursement of overheads. The scheme is expected to be announced in next year’s Budget speech after the Planning Commission approves it. “This is the first time the Centre will directly implement its farm-related schemes. So far it has only worked through states. But there is a huge disparity between states in the capacity to deliver desired outcomes. An analysis of current programmes shows that public-private partnership would be the best route for future success,” the official said. The co-operation of a state government will be sought when a project comes up for appraisal and sanction. In their new role as implementers of the Centre’s schemes, companies will be able to build a firm supply chain and also become the farmer’s one-stop solution provider for everything — from seeds, technology and irrigation to post-harvest crop management and marketing, said Bhaskar Reddy, director, Ficci.