Agritech platform, Safal Fasal launched in India to improve farmer livelihoods

Lucknow: In a bid to resolve farmer woes and create supply chain efficiency in agriculture, global fintech solution provider BPC has launched Safal Fasal, a digital platform that gives small and marginal farmers greater access to finance, technology, markets, and risk-management tools. The launch event in Lucknow witnessed on-boarding of nearly 30,000 farmers on the MarketPlace platform.

From solving farmer credit issues, to offering inventory management systems, financing agricultural equipment, know-how to reduce crop losses, and mapping quality storage facilities, Safal Fasal is aimed at directly impacting farmer income through technology. Leading Indian creditors, agritech companies, and relevant industry players have also partnered this initiative by BPC to tackle India’s farming problems. Some of the leading corporate who have on-boarded include ICICI Bank, Tanager International, Bayer, SURE, Sub-K,Kisan Saathi, Transity, India Health Link and GupShups. The launch event was attended by representatives of ACCION, NABARD, GIZ, Axis Bank, ICICI Lombard, Mfin India, Microsave, PWC, Samunnati, Greenlight etc.

The Safal Fasal Marketplace connects buyers and sellers and improves the income of the farmer by enabling access to multiple buyers, multiple input companies at reduced prices, credit at affordable rates, financial services lifting them into the real economy and access to advisory services for a more efficient and sustainable crop productivity. Buyers benefit from access to a large and varied segment of credible and vetted farmers and their produce, ease of procurement and planning in a fragmented market, better logistics and tracing and therefore a better and more balanced price with reduced risk.

Speaking at the launch event, Anatoly Loginov, Chairman BPC Banking Technologies said, “Building ecosystems is not merely a passion, but a realistic and much needed development in the digitization of our economy. We can no longer achieve better performance through point to point solutions, but we must seek cooperation amongst parties and facilitate this at scale with digital technology. By doing so we can also make a contribution to large societal and economic dilemmas such as food provision, fair trade and access to society and a healthy financial life for all.”

This scalable digital innovation will empower farmers by connecting them with credible financial and business stakeholders in the value chain. Safal Fasal will look at fixing the broken Agri Value Chain by bridging the gaps between various stakeholders starting from farmers, FPOs, FPCs, input providers, produce-buyer financial institutions, insurance companies, logistics providers, shared equipment providers, knowledge partners, advisory services and other relevant value added-service providers.

“We are delighted that so many credible business partners have signed up to our initiative ranging from leading banks and agriculture providers up to local partners delivering kiosks for the local farmer in remote locations. Together we can build a broad digital ecosystem from India, which learnings can then be lifted into other sectors and regions of the world,” he added.

Discussing the company’s mission, Debarshi Dutta, Executive Vice President & Global Head Marketplace for BPC Banking Technologies, said, “We are focused on collaborating with the existing area specific stakeholders and bringing in technological interventions to help better and efficient delivery value chain, through proper transparency and traceability. This will help in taking the benefits to the last mile and increase the income of the farmers and other marketplace stakeholders by 15-20%. With the digital footprints, lending to farmers or MSME will be easier for the financial institutions and at a better price point. This will be a savings in itself.”

Mr S K Roy, DGM, NABARD said in his keynote address, “There is a strong need of sustainable, smart and climate adopting technology to improve agriculture productivity. The initiatives like Safal Fasal will in bringing technology in the hands of farmers and increase their income.

“Nabard extends full support to BPC in this initiative and invites them to introduce the facility in more states,” Mr Roy added.

As per statistics, Gross Value Added by Agriculture sector (agriculture, forestry and fishing) in the Indian economy is estimated at INR 17.7 lakh crores (approx. US$ 274 billion) for the financial year 2017-18. Agriculture accounts for a substantial part of GDP (16%) and employment (49%). Moreover, 86% of India’s farmers are small and marginal as per Agriculture census 2015-16. The company’s focus is to bring a positive impact in the agriculture sector using technology intervention keeping the small and marginal farmers at the centre.