Olam Agri providing interest-free advances to growers through digital app

Singapore-based agribusiness Olam Agri has started offering interest-free down payment to farmers in India through a digital app – Jiva AgriCentral, said a senior official of the company.

The app, which is one of the largest agricultural advisory platforms in India, hit the milestone of screwing in eight million farmers last year.

“We offer interest-free credit to farmers using agricultural technology via our Jiva app. Once farmers sell their produce, we adjust the payment against the credit provided,” said N Muthukumar, CFO and CEO, Olam Group – Operations, Olam Agri.

reap the advantage of agtech

Addressing a meeting of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), organized by Samunnati Agricultural Corporation near Hyderabad last week, Muthukumar said farmers should make use of agricultural techniques and techniques through FPOs.

Olam International launched its digital app Jiva in 2020 to empower smallholder farmers around the world. The aim of launching the app was to build an innovation-driven ecosystem to improve the lives of farmers by providing access to the best possible business advice, products and services.

Muthukumar said that India’s rapid urbanization may mean that there are not enough farmers in the country for production in the future. Efforts must be made to help farmers obtain healthy returns to remain in the sector.

The Olam Group official said that although India was the largest exporter of rice, the focus should be on the quality that is produced. “It must change from low quality and mass quantity to high quality,” he said.

He said federal organizations can take advantage of agricultural technology and collaborate with stakeholders in the sector to address the problem.