Can I set up a custom hiring centre for farm machinery under AIF?

Yes, custom hiring centres are listed among the community farming assets eligible under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. A custom hiring centre lets you buy machinery such as tractors, rotavators, seed drills, harvesters and sprayers and rent them out to farmers who cannot afford their own, and AIF can finance this with the 3 percent interest subvention up to the ceiling and credit guarantee on eligible loans. One useful point, custom hiring centres also have dedicated machinery subsidy schemes under farm mechanisation programmes, and in some cases AIF and a mechanisation subsidy can be combined, though you cannot claim the same machine cost twice. So ask whether stacking an upfront machinery subsidy with an AIF-tagged loan makes the project cheapest. Practical advice for running a profitable centre. First, choose machines with high local demand and good rental days per year, not just glamorous big machines that sit idle. Second, a combine or harvester earns well in season but needs migration and skilled operators. Third, track utilisation and maintenance tightly, downtime kills the economics. Fourth, basic implements like rotavators and seed drills often give steadier rental income than one expensive machine. Build the project report around realistic rental days and rates in your area. Confirm eligibility, current ceiling and any combinable mechanisation subsidy on the official AIF agriinfra portal or with your lending bank. This is general information and not financial advice.