India, August 23, 2022: BASIX Social Enterprise Group today announced the launch of BASIX Farmers’ Market (BFM), an agritech platform, in partnership with Mastercard. The collaboration is in line with the Government of India’s vision to integrate farmers into the digital economy. BFM will leverage Mastercard’s technology capabilities, and BASIX’s deep industry expertise in agriculture to improve the lives of small and marginal farmers. This will be done by addressing the fundamental challenges related to price discovery, market reach, payments, and credit access.
Over 26 years serving farmers and promoting more than 600 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) across the country, BASIX has so far registered 1 lakh farmers across five districts of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra on the BFM platform. Through BFM, BASIX and Mastercard aim to improve the lives of over 10 lac (one million) farmers, including the new cohort of 200 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) being promoted under SMART Project as part of their partnership with the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission.
BFM currently caters to farmers across the Nagpur, Akola, Bhuldana, Wardha, and Amravati districts in Maharashtra and plans to further scale up across India to create a commercially sustainable digital agriculture ecosystem. FPOs and farmer groups can easily register themselves on the BFM platform for free and sell their produce to end buyers in a hassle-free manner. The platform digitizes data and workflows for FPOs with strong controls on data privacy and security. The platform is also equipped to work in environments with inconsistent connectivity, such as remote areas of the country, where several small farmers operate.
“We are very excited to launch BFM in partnership with Mastercard. BASIX group has been at the forefront of the FPO revolution in India and pioneered various aspects of agri value chains, including design and delivery of agri-finance at scale. Sub-K, a BASIX promoted fintech, is already leading the way on fintech innovations in the financial inclusion space, and I am proud that both BASIX and Sub-K are coming together in this endeavor. We firmly believe in the power of technology for building scale, and highly value this partnership with Mastercard, a global powerhouse in payments technology. We aim to impact at least 1 million farmers through this initiative in the next five years,” said, Sattaiah Deverakonda, Group MD & CEO, BASIX.
Sub-K will facilitate credit and other financial linkages for working capital, trade finance and the investment needs of farmers and FPOs registered on BFM. Sub-K will rely on the data generated on BFM to analyze credit requirements and associated risks using proprietary rule engines, and then package financing options in partnership with financial institutions.
“Mastercard collaborates with partners like BASIX to develop products and solutions that uplift underserved communities, bringing them into the digital economy. Through BFM, multiple stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem will be connected, empowering farmers in a commercially sustainable way by helping them to find new buyers, access credit and improve their livelihoods,” said Himanshu Bansal, Vice President, Digital and Financial Inclusion, Mastercard Community Pass.
The launch of BASIX Farmers’ Market is an extension of Mastercard Farm Pass, a rural and agriculture digitization solution that serves more than 3.5 lakh farmers across five states in India, and one million farmers globally. It is a digital ecosystem platform that works offline to connect buyers, FPOs and other agriculture ecosystem players with farmers, and enable them to get the best value for their produce.
The platform serves as an opportunity for banks, financial institutions, FPOs, and NGOs to create a white labeled commercially sustainable agri-ecosystem by digitizing the value chains. In the process, they become lifetime partners with smallholder farmers, and leverage Mastercard technology to provide them financial solutions that were earlier not feasible.
About BASIX
BASIX is a globally recognized Social Enterprise Group working on a mission to promote sustainable rural livelihoods for the last 26 years, offering financial services, agri and business development services, and Institutional development. The group operates in more than 400 districts and over 60,000 villages across 24 states in India through its various group entities. It has been a pioneer on multiple fronts including in agri value chains, financial inclusion, skills & employability, solid waste management, micro-energy and micro-enterprise development. BASIX has been offering consulting services to various bilateral and multilateral organizations, and institution building services to social enterprises in more than 30 developing countries across Africa and Asia since inception.
About Sub-K
Sub-K is a fintech that seeks to fulfil aspirations of underserved communities by democratizing finance and bridging the digital divide, thus creating a ‘financially included’ society, through a robust and widespread distribution network and in-house Fintech solutions. Sub-K serves over 3 million underbanked households including 500,000 borrowers through a network of agents and feet on the street salesforce. The company has facilitated disbursements of around 5,000 Crores (~USD 700 mn) of micro-loans and processes more than 10,000 Crores (USD 1.3 bn) of financial transactions annually through its platform. Sub-K operates in 20 states in India offering savings, credit, insurance and pensions through partnership with 12 banks.
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