Bayer, Rabobank and Mastercard fasten financial digitization of smallholders in India

To economically empower smallholder farmers in rural India, Bayer CropScience, Rabo Partnerships and Mastercard launch a scalable program to advance the digitization of the country’s agricultural finance ecosystem. This collaboration brings the three companies’ decades of expertise in digital & agrifinance and payments technology together to expand access to agronomic knowledge, products, services, and partnerships. Over five years, the program aims to benefit 10 million smallholder farmers in India by enabling them to gain easier access to formal financial services.

Smallholder farmers account for 86% of India’s agri-economy, but have difficulty sourcing quality farm products and are often at the mercy of middlemen when it comes to pricing. Mastercard’s Farm Pass is a digital ecosystem platform that works offline, even with feature phones, connecting buyers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and other agriculture ecosystem players with farmers digitally, and helping them get the best value for their produce. The solution, which serves over 600.000 farmers in India and 1,5 million globally, creates a standard interface for farmers and buyers that facilitates greater efficiency in the agriculture value chain.

Banks often find it difficult to serve the rural ecosystem effectively, as most farmers don’t have a formal credit history, which limits their access to formal financial services. Bayer, Rabo Partnerships and Mastercard are in advanced discussions with large Indian banks to provide financing to farmers and farmer-producer organizations. This is made possible by data-driven scoring tooling deployed at the partner financial institutions, along with credit analytics supported by Rabo Partnerships, giving banks more comfort in serving smallholder farmers with a complete portfolio of financial services including credit.

This cooperation in India is unique. The program is part of Bayer’s commitment to reach 100 million smallholder farmers worldwide by 2030 with much needed inputs, digital tools and financial services. Bayer’s FarmRise provides various digital advisory services to smallholders today. Through Mastercard’s Farm Pass digital platform, farmers will benefit from gaining access to new marketplaces and a much wider pool of potential buyers, enabling them to improve their livelihoods in a commercially sustainable way. Rabo Partnerships will drive access to financial services over the platform by enabling data-driven credit scoring, credit analytics and product development within the partner financial institutions, thereby contributing to more financial inclusion.

"Rabo Partnerships aims to contribute to improvement of farmer livelihoods worldwide. Achieving this requires sustainable partnerships, which is why Rabo Partnerships is excited to partner with Bayer and Mastercard to establish a scalable digital ecosystem, enabling farmers and as well as other agricultural value chain partners with a wide array of services, including agro advisory, inputs procurement, marketing, and access to formal financial services", said David Gerbrands, Global Head Advisory & Inclusive Ventures, Rabo Partnerships.