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LEAF to disrupt agri financial sector with a slew of products & services
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Thursday, 26 November, 2020, 13 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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Lawrencedale Agro Processing India (LEAF) is set to disrupt the Indian agriculture financial sector with a slew of products and services and which will go beyond the plain simple credit products for the primary sector.
The company ywill be aligning with a globally reputed technology major to enable this paradigm shift in how farmers experience financial services.
The Indian agriculture sector has been attracting a lot of attention from multiple stakeholders but the key aspect of bringing in ease of financial services to the marginalised farmers has not been addressed.
Palat Vijayaraghavan, founder and CEO, LEAF, said, “There is pain for the farmer in each and every step. The digital platform which we are enabling will take out the pain in all these steps for the farmers. With our active on ground Farmer Support Centres, the farmers can grow the best of the produce, sell the harvest through our centres, easily realise the value for their harvest and access the fruits of their harvest through advances technology solutions which will ease how the farmers experiences finances.”
The various innovations which will ease this pain for the farmers in the hinterland will enable sustainable village banking through digitisation of farmers’ incomes, and providing easy liquidity through cash-in and cash-out at Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) Offices and at various small shops in villages.
“Even after the buyers transfer the proceeds to the farmers bank after much delay, the access to a bank branch or an ATM is tough in many situations. Imagine with just a card, the farmer can cash out at the local kirana store or at a Panchayat office. This will empower farmers to focus more on growing crops in a much better way while the problems in accessing money will be simplified,” added Vijayaraghavan.
The strategic alignment with the global technology major will enable powerful solutions for the agriculture sector by building innovative credit products on farmer income and expense data.
The platform will connect farmers with buyers, inputs suppliers, banks and financial institutions and Farmer Producer Organisations. The platform digitises agriculture marketplaces, payments, workflows and provides farmers an easy and secure way to buy, sell and receive payments for their produce.
The company’s Farmer Services Team will onboard farmers, train them to transact on the platform. Farmers can not only sell their produce to buyers through the platform, but also purchase inputs and avail financial services from banks and insurance companies. The value-added services such as crop advisory, logistics and mechanisation extensions would be offered through the platform.
The company will deepen its scope of work and will engage with various stakeholders with a roadmap to positively impact 3 million farmers over the next few years.
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