Project aims to transform business process of financing for farmers
University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Synchrony, a premier consumer financial services company, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to help fund India’s first blockchain project for providing financial services to farmers in need throughout the country. Farmers in India can face challenges in accessing funds due to factors such as income uncertainty and problems with monitoring asset utilization in remote villages. This blockchain project can bring all the parties together – from farmers to financing experts in the supply chain together to simplify the exchange of information and payments.
This public-private partnership is a three-year partnership including a grant from Synchrony to the University for the Project which will focus on leveraging the blockchain technology to help lenders provide financial assistance to farmers with no collateral and fixed assets. The project aims to make revolutionary changes in the Agri financing sector in India by introducing disruptive technology to help with financial resiliency.
The main objective of the project is to find ways on how technology can reduce the costs for marginal farmers who cannot access loans from formal channels of lending. Blockchain aims to bridge the gap by reducing information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers and ensures better monitoring of asset utilization. The project also aims to provide artificial intelligence-based tools to project future cash flows of farmers. With better monitoring and more accurate cash flow predictions, the project hopes to improve the lenders’ trust and reduce the cost of borrowing to marginal farmers with no collateral for borrowing.
The project will be headed by Prof. Vijaya Bhaskar Marisetty, Professor of Finance, School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad. Prof. Marisetty has been working with farmers during the last three years and has extensive insights into the problems faced by farmers and lenders in the country. Dr. Varsha Mamidi, Faculty member, Machine Learning, University of Hyderabad, is a co-investigator in developing the blockchain. This will be India’s first financial services-based blockchain for a group of farmers in Tamil Nadu, associated with SEEDS NGO (Farmers Produce Organization). The blockchain will be built between farmers, SEEDS, and their primary lender Sammunati Financial Services (a leading Agri-based value chain financing NBFC in India). NIRMAAN, NGO, will coordinate the project.
Professor Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad, welcomed the university’s first CSR funded project. He mentioned that: “Such innovative models will help in bridging the gap between industry and academic institutions. University of Hyderabad thanks Synchrony for coming forward and paving the way to CSR based research projects in the University.”
“Through our partnership with the University of Hyderabad, we are helping to push the technology boundaries to help farmers reach their financial goals,” said Mr. Andy Ponneri, Senior Vice President and Business Leader, Synchrony India. “This grant can provide access to blockchain technology to help farmers more readily access the financial assistance they need to support their operations.”
Prof. Vijaya Bhaskar Marisetty can be reached on Email- marisetty@uohyd.ac.in