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Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India, Schemes - Banks, Start ups, Warehousing

With this partnership, Arya.ag, will further its mission to drive financial inclusion for farmers and FPOs and offer loans.

Arya.ag, India’s largest and only profitable grain commerce platform at scale, has announced a strategic partnership with Shivalik Small Finance Bank – a scheduled commercial bank in India. With this business correspondent model partnership, Arya.ag, will further its mission to drive financial inclusion for farmers and FPOs and offer loans through Shivalik Small Finance Bank under Warehouse Receipt Finance.

To bridge the trust deficit in the ecosystem, Arya.ag partners with various financial institutions to offer loans to small and marginal farmers including women, who fall out of the consideration of formal banking.

“We at Arya.ag are thrilled to announce our partnership with Shivalik Small Finance Bank. Shivalik Small Finance Bank’s innovative technology-focused vision and their dedication to serving smallholder farmers perfectly align with our core objective of building trust and transparency in the agricultural value chain. Our collaboration will not only strengthen our ability to promote equitable growth in agriculture but also offer more opportunities for the smallest stakeholders to access financial resources and drive positive change in the industry” said Anand Chandra, Co-founder of Arya.ag, regarding the partnership.

“In line with our vision to focus on small and underserved segments through the delivery of digitally focused, affordable products and differentiated customer experience, partnership with Arya.ag will enable us to stay connected with the farmers directly. Arya.ag’s digitized processes, AI enabled systems and customized solutions it offers us the additional layer of professional assurance we require at all levels.” said Anshul Swami, MD & CEO Shivalik Small Finance Bank.

In today’s landscape, the adoption of high-tech banking capabilities is more crucial than ever to meet the needs of a rapidly changing industry and diverse borrower base.  Alliances like these enable ease of business for seamless lending processes, more efficient operations for end-users, and create new opportunities for digital engagement.

With this partnership, Arya.ag, will further its

Company News, Foodgrains, Sustainability, World

The Nutrient Gap Initiative aims to improve access to essential nutrients for 50 million people by 2030

Bayer announces the expansion of one of its signature sustainability programs, the Nutrient Gap Initiative, to now improve access to both nutritious food and safety net supplementation.  The program initially aimed to expand access to essential vitamins and minerals to 50 million people in underserved communities by 2030, with a focus on nutritional supplementation, a critical tool to build a safety net for malnutrition in these communities. On the occasion of the initiative’s second anniversary, the company is evolving the program to also help close the nutrient gap through the most fundamental source: food, namely fruits, vegetables and grains. 

“As a global leader in both agriculture and nutritional supplements, Bayer is uniquely positioned to help all people get access to proper nutrition. The roots of malnutrition are complex and far from one-size-fits-all, so we’re drawing on competencies from across our company to fight it. We want to remove the barriers to a healthy diet for those who need it most,” said Heiko Schipper, President of the Consumer Health Division of Bayer AG and Member of the Board of Management.

“For people in underserved communities, access to nutritious food is a challenge due to the cost and local availability of fresh produce and grains. As part of our critical work for food security and smallholder farmers, The Nutrient Gap Initiative will help improve the livelihoods of people who do not have access to vitamins and minerals, leveraging also our Better Life Farming Centres,” said Rodrigo Santos, President of the Crop Science Division of Bayer AG and Member of the Board of Management. 

Smallholder farmers are the backbone of many food systems, but their communities are often suffering from malnutrition and a lack of health services. Building on the existing strong infrastructure of the Better Life Farming centres, smallholder farmers will become a key audience for The Nutrient Gap Initiative. The Better Life Farming Centres, predominantly in Asia Pacific, provide smallholders in remote rural regions access to essential agricultural products, a key pillar of Bayer’s Smallholder Initiative which aims to impact 100 million smallholders in low-and-middle-income countries by 2030. Bayer will pilot the expansion of services offered with access to nutritional solutions and education given that food security cannot be achieved without health equity.

The Nutrient Gap Initiative aims to improve

Live Stock, Sustainability

To invest $1.4 billion to help smallholder farmers 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation echoed African Leaders Call for countries to rapidly scale-up finance for climate adaptation and pledged to invest $1.4 billion to help smallholder farmers address the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change. The announcement was made by Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).

“The effects of climate change have already been devastating, and every moment the world delays action, more people suffer, and the solutions become more complex and costly,” said Suzman. “Our commitment will help smallholder farmers adapt today and build resilience for the future. It is essential for this climate summit to produce bold commitments that address immediate and long-term needs. Leaders must listen to the voices of African farmers and governments to understand their priorities and respond with urgency.”

The foundation’s commitment will fund immediate action and long-term initiatives over four years to help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia build resilience and food security. Funding will focus on spurring African-led innovation to build a pipeline of climate-smart agriculture projects, new applications of digital technologies, climate-smart innovations for smallholder livestock farming, and support for women smallholder farmers to capitalise on their untapped potential.

“Women in rural Africa are the backbone of their food systems, but they have never had equal access to the resources they need to reach their full potential or build resilience to looming climate threats,” said Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “As the climate crisis accelerates, women’s vital role in their economies is too important to overlook. With the right financing and marketing support, women smallholder farmers could earn more in a day than they currently earn in a month, ultimately transforming these regional food systems and unlocking a healthier, more sustainable, and more prosperous future for families and communities across the continent.”

“The climate crisis is causing enormous harm every day as it jeopardises entire regions of people and economies,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “More funding is necessary to ensure agricultural and technological innovations are widely available to vulnerable communities, helping them to adapt to climate change, save lives and increase economic growth.”

To invest $1.4 billion to help smallholder

India, Start ups

Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN), a leading agriculture technology platform in India, has raised $4 million from Social Capital, a Silicon Valley-based technology investment firm managed by Chamath Palihapitiya. This is the first institutional round raised by HFN, which will be used to reach more than 120 million smallholder farmers across India, as well as explore opportunities in India’s rural markets.

HFN helps smallholder farmers (defined by the UN as a farmer owning less than 2 hectare of land) in India to increase their income by empowering them with a collective bargaining platform. Through HFN’s platform, farmers are able to buy farm inputs, access financial services such as loans and insurance, as well as sell their crops to national and international customers enabling them to scale and grow their businesses.

Founded by Ruchit Garg during COVID-19, HFN was created to reduce the friction between farmers and buyers, initially by enabling them to connect directly on Twitter. Since then, more than $500 million of crops, consisting of over 360 crop varieties, have been listed on HFN’s digital platform from every state across India. These crops have been sold domestically as well as to international markets. A global agricultural powerhouse, India produces more than $275 billion of crops annually.

As of August 2022, more than 3.7 million farmers are digitally connected to the HFN platform, witnessing a 2.5X increase in their crop earnings. Recently, many forward-thinking farmers have even launched offline centres known as “HFN Kisan Centres” to help fellow local farmers sell their crops and buy staple inputs such as seeds and fertiliser at affordable prices.

Ruchit G Garg, Founder CEO of HFN, said: “At HFN, our goal is to help farmers realise their full potential by reducing the plethora of inefficiencies across the agriculture value chain. Simple and widely-available technologies like WhatsApp and Twitter have allowed us to create massive data-driven farmer co-operatives, which allows farmers to negotiate better rates for farm inputs and more competitive prices for outputs.”

Jay Zaveri, Partner at Social Capital, said: “India is one of the bread baskets of the world and we’re excited to partner with HFN to bring a safe, secure, and empowering platform to the more than 120 million smallholder farmers across India. Our goal is to enable Indian households to access high-quality farm produce and for farmers to build a profitable livelihood through HFN.”

HFN plans to use the new funding to rapidly expand its footprint across India, and over the next 12 months, it expects to connect farmers in every single one of India’s 708 districts across the country.

Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN), a leading agriculture