IFFCO, SBI join hands to provide finance, fertilisers to Indian farmers at doorstep

IFFCO Bazar and SBI's Yono Krishi platform come together to deliver quality agri-products to farmers at their doorstep.

New Delhi: IFFCO Bazar, the ecommerce platform of India’s largest fertiliser manufacturer IFFCO has joined hands with the State Bank of India’s Yono Krishi platform to reach out to India’s vast farmer population, with the aim to deliver quality agri-products at their doorstep.

India’s nearly two-third population lives in the rural area, which has been largely unaffected from the adverse economic impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic that devastated other segments of the economy in the first three months of this fiscal when the country was under complete lockdown.

With increasing availability of smart phones and cheap mobile data, marketers have been using digital tools to reach out to rural consumers as the agriculture sector has emerged as the only silver lining in the country’s growth story in this financial year.

SBI, India’s largest public sector bank and IFFCO, hope that this partnership will ensure the availability of quality agriculture products to farmers and drive sale in this segment through the digital channel.

“Through the portal, farmers can not only order best quality non-subsidised fertilisers and other agriculture inputs but can also get answers to their queries through a farmers’ forum and a dedicated helpline," said US Awasthi, Managing Director of IFFCO.

IFFCO Bazar, promoted by India’s largest fertiliser manufacturer IFFCO, is a fast growing agriculture based ecommerce platform, which is available in the 12 Indian languages and offers free home delivery of its products to farmers across the country.

IFFCO also offers speciality fertilisers, organic agri-inputs, seeds, agrochemicals, agri-machinery amongst other things to farmers through its over 1200 stores located in 26 states.

With this partnership, Awasthi said, IFFCO Bazar would be able to take advantage of the State Bank of India’s unmatched reach in rural India.

Yogendra Kumar, IFFCO’s Marketing Director, says finance and fertilisers are two critical inputs for Indian farmers and with this partnership, Indian farmers can get both at their doorsteps.

"It will help IFFCO Bazar to reach out to over 3 crore registered customers of YONO, of which a large part lives in rural India, to create a trustworthy ecosystem which will ultimately help reduce the input costs for the farmers,” Yogendra Kumar added.

(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)