A realistic view on money, support systems, and discipline
Agriculture and food businesses across the world operate under strong government development mandates. India is no exception. There exist multiple schemes, programs, and financial provisions to supports
• Farmers,
• Post-harvest operations,
• Storage and warehousing,
• Processing and value addition, and
• marketing and distribution.
This Afterthought exists to bring clarity and balance to how food and agri businesses should think about finance.
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1. Two extreme mistakes businesses often make
Most agri businesses fall into one of two traps.
First mistake: Building a business that survives only because of subsidies, grants, or schemes. Such businesses:
• Collapse when schemes change,
• Distort decision-making, and
• Stop becoming commercially disciplined.
Second mistake: Completely ignoring government support and insisting on running only on internal resources. This leads to:
• Unnecessarily high capital costs,
• Slower growth, and
• Weaker competitiveness
Both approaches are incomplete.
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2. The correct approach: internal strength + external leverage
A sound food or agri business must first be commercially viable on its own logic. Government support should:
• Reduce risk,
• Improve affordability of capital, and
• Accelerate learning or infrastructure build-up.
It should not:
• Hide inefficiency,
• Compensate for poor planning, or
• Replace basic business sense.
Support is meant to assist good businesses, not rescue weak ones.
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3. Understanding what support really exists
Farmers and agri-linked businesses are entitled to:
• Concessional credit,
• Interest subvention,
• Capital subsidies,
• Grants for infrastructure, and
• Reduced-cost services and utilities.
These provisions apply not only to farming, but also to:
• Storage,
• Cold chains,
• Primary and secondary processing, and
• Market-linked initiatives.
Ignoring these is equivalent to paying a self-imposed premium on capital.
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4. Why dependence is dangerous
When a business is designed primarily around schemes:
• Priorities get reversed,
• Timelines get dictated by approvals, and
• Innovation slows down.
Subsidy-first thinking often leads to:
• Oversized assets,
• Misaligned capacities, and
• saperwork-driven operations.
This Afterthought clearly states:
Schemes must follow business design — never the other way around.
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5. Using development finance intelligently
Development finance works best when it is used for:
• Infrastructure creation,
• Risk reduction in early stages, and
• Improving long-term efficiency.
For example:
• Concessional loans make sense for storage or processing assets,
• Grants help offset learning-stage inefficiencies,
• Interest support reduces pressure during ramp-up phases.
But day-to-day operations must still respect real cash flows and costs.
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6. Discipline in financial structuring
Every financial support taken must be evaluated on:
• Long-term obligation,
• Reporting and compliance burden, and
• Operational flexibility impact.
Cheap money with heavy conditions is not always cheap.
This business therefore believes:
• Financial assistance must simplify operations, not complicate them,
• Capital structure must remain transparent, and
• Decision-making must not get hijacked by funding availability.
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7. A balanced mindset
The right mindset for food and agri businesses is this:
• Build a business that can stand without support.
• Use support to stand stronger and faster.
• Never let support decide what business you are in.
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In simple words
Government support is like a walking stick. It helps you walk better — but only if your legs are strong.
Depending entirely on it makes you weak. Refusing to use it makes you inefficient.
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Why this is written as an Afterthought
Because money decisions are often taken:
• After everything looks ready, or
• In moments of pressure.
This Afterthought exists to ensure that finance strengthens the business quietly — without distorting its soul.
