Technology for MSMEs: Mastercard announced its collaboration with livelihood promotion institution BASIX Social Enterprise Group to launch an agritech platform BASIX Farmers’ Market (BFM) to integrate farmers into the digital economy.

The digital platform will be used to address the fundamental challenges for small farmers related to price discovery, market reach, payments, and credit access leveraging technology from Mastercard and sector expertise of BASIX, according to the company’s statement. 

Himanshu Bansal, Vice President, Digital and Financial Inclusion, Mastercard Community Pass articulated Mastercard’s goal to collaborate with initiatives that uplift the underserved communities. 

Also read: Defence ministry to review No Cost No Commitment trials to increase MSME participation

“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,” he added.

Through the collaboration, both the companies aim to connect 10 lakh farmers with technology to their benefit, including the new cohort of 200 Farmer Produce Organisations (FPO), being promoted under SMART Project partnering with Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission.

Sattaiah Deverakonda, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BASIX, informed that the digital platform was developed by Sub-K, a BASIX-promoted fintech for financial inclusions. 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 with the help of the data generated by the latter, he further said.

Also read: Commerce minister Piyush Goyal wants industry to act as whistleblower to report malpractices on GeM portal

“We firmly believe in the power of technology and aim to impact at least 1 million farmers through this initiative in the next five years,” added Deverakonda. 

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, Mastercard said in their statement.