Through this financing solution, farmers can access collateral-free loans up to Rs three lakhs.
Bengaluru based Fasal, India’s leading horticulture-first, full-stack Agri-tech company, announced its partnership with State Bank of India (SBI), aimed to provide farmers with easy access to capital. The partnership will help solve cash-flow constraints during key cycles in farming by providing quick, easy, and collateral-free loans at very competitive rates. This ties into Fasal’s larger objective of solving the many challenges across the entire horticulture value chain, thereby paving the way for India’s horticultural transformation.
In the 2023 budget, the government announced raising the agriculture credit target by 11 per cent to Rs20 lakh crore for FY24. The launch of Fasal’s latest financing solution echoes the government’s focused efforts toward increasing financial support for farmers across the country. Through this financing solution, farmers can access collateral-free loans up to three lakhs. The goal is to enable farmers to effectively fund and manage urgent and immediate agri-input needs and adopt Fasal’s technology solution to make their farming precise and predictable. These loans will be disbursed under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme, well known for its lowest interest rate within the farmer credit support system. This latest offering from Fasal will be initially available in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh and later expand to other regions. Alternatively, if the farmer has already exhausted his/her KCC limit, SBI will enable these financing solutions through other Agri schemes.
Talking about the collaboration, Shantanu Pendsey, CGM, Agriculture Business Unit (ABU), State Bank of India, Corporate Centre, said, “We are pleased to partner with Fasal, a frontrunner in providing innovative solutions to the horticulture community. Through this collaborative effort, we will be able to reach out to more farmers across India and offer them timely as well as easy access to financial support. We look forward to working with the Fasal team to financially empower farmers in India.”
Commenting on the partnership, Shailendra Tiwari, Founder of Fasal, said, “Access to quick, easy and low-cost financial support to farmers, as well as horticulturists, will be key as we work to make horticulture a main focus in the country. With SBI’s support and their extensive nationwide network in rural areas, we are confident that we can positively impact farmers by providing better access to credit and consequently, bring precision farming to a lot more farmers.”
