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Global players ADM & Mastercard collaborate to advance digitalisation and financial inclusion among farmers in India
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Friday, 11 October, 2024, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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Mastercard announced its collaboration with Archer-Daniels-Midland company (ADM), an essential global agricultural supply chain manager and processor, to enhance the digitalisation of its Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and farmer base in Maharashtra, India. The company will register its FPOs, collection centres and farmers for participation in Farm Pass, a technology powered by Mastercard.
The collaboration aims to scale its direct sourcing from smallholder farmers, enhance crop traceability, and improve transparency within the farmer-FPO channel. The company will also leverage existing Farm Pass programmes to encourage more FPOs in the region to join their oilseeds sourcing programme.
As part of the collaboration, the company will explore working with Mastercard Community Pass card issuers to offer unique financial inclusion and loyalty solutions to approximately 250,000 farmers. The initiative will enable farmers and FPOs to receive the value for produce sold to the company directly onto Community Pass financial inclusion cards. The company will have the opportunity to offer farmers innovative loyalty benefits. The financial inclusion cards will provide access to credit and government welfare schemes for the farmers and are expected to facilitate $30 million in welfare schemes and credit flow over the next few years.
Community Pass is a digital platform that includes the existing Farm Pass program offering and connects the agricultural ecosystem – farmers, agri-buyers, lenders and other service providers – to enable farmers to adjust their supply and production according to the demand for their crops. Mastercard Community Pass enables low-income communities to access critical services through interoperable digital technology to provide a unified user experience and divide the cost of delivering digital services between multiple service providers like governments, banks, and agriculture technology firms.
By connecting its supply chain with Mastercard’s Community Pass digital infrastructure, the collaboration will not only improve operational efficiency but also deliver tangible benefits to smallholder farmers in Maharashtra.
Tara Nathan, executive vice president and founder, Mastercard Community Pass, said, “Digitalisation can offer great value to farming communities across India. Mastercard is delighted to collaborate with ADM to empower smallholder farmers and FPOs by enabling digital access to buyers and increasing transparency in the value chain. This initiative reaffirms Mastercard’s commitment to leveraging technology and innovation to drive inclusive growth.”
Starting with Maharashtra, the two entities will look to expand their collaboration to cover smallholder farmers in other Indian states.
Amrendra Mishra, managing director, oilseeds & country manager, India, Archer-Daniels-Midland company, said, “This partnership will not only lead to greater predictability in our supply chain but also empower farmers through financial inclusion and sustainability initiatives. At the same time, we will support FPOs in expanding their business and serving farmers more effectively. We are excited to expand our efforts through this collaboration to support the agricultural sector in Maharashtra, including the communities we serve.”
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