Partnering with Bayer & Mastercard to kick-off AX India

The lack of access to fitting financial services is currently seen as one of the main constraints standing in the way of improving sustainable agricultural practices and enhancing the livelihood of smallholder farmers. Smallholders account for 86% of India’s agrarian 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 (which is a core element within Agriculture Exchange, see info box) is a digital platform that connects buyers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and other agriculture ecosystem players with farmers digitally, and helps them get the best value for their produce. Farm Pass, which already serves over one million farmers in India and two million globally, creates a standard, safe & secure interface for farmers and buyers that facilitates greater efficiency in the agriculture value chain both in an online and offline environment to reduce food waste and increase income levels of farmers.

The increased transparency that Farm Pass offers can completely change the way financial services are organized, offered and delivered to farmers. Banks often find it difficult to serve the rural ecosystem effectively, as most farmers don’t have a formal credit history. Once the value chain players are transacting through the platform, it is possible to ne the data collected to increase the transparency of the agricultural sector as a whole, as well as smallholder farmers individually. This way, and through supporting them with product management, risk management and data-driven scoring tools and credit analytics, Rabo Partnerships can help make financial institutions feel more comfortable serving smallholder farmers with a complete portfolio of financial services, including credit.

In India, Agriculture Exchange has teamed up with Bayer, who will complement the proposition with additional functionalities through FarmRise. This solution offers agro advisory services, photo-based crop disease recognition, market prices information, and a farmer passbook. On the one hand, this joint proposition offers even more comprehensive and complete services to smallholder farmers, FPOs, and agricultural SMEs, while on the other hand it generates an even more dynamic dataset that can be used to help unlock financial services for the sector.

Through the bundling of services, we aim to provide a holistic solution that addresses the challenges farmers are facing and empowers them to grow their business, improve their livelihoods, and contribute to more sustainable agricultural practices.

This cooperation in India is unique and aims for scale. The program is fully in line with the goals of Agriculture Exchange, as well as Bayer’s commitment to reach 100 million smallholder farmers worldwide by 2030 with much-needed inputs, digital tools and financial services. In 2022, we focused on testing our assumptions related to the challenges farmers face in the field, finding the right last mile delivery partners for physical interaction with the agricultural value chain partners, and identifying the first financial institutions to be onboarded onto the platform.

In 2023, we will go live in at least two Indian states: Maharasthra and Telangana, aiming to serve about 400,000 farmers by the end of 2023 as a first step towards serving 10 million farmers in the next 5 years period.