Samunnati Signs MoU to Expand Accessibility for SFAC’s Financial Schemes

To increase access to venture capital assistance, credit guarantee schemes and other benefits to FPOs and agri-enterprises

Samunnati Agro Solutions Private Limited, a specialized Agri Value Chain enabler has entered a no-cost Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), an autonomous society promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India. This is a 3 years partnership which is aimed to facilitate the Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) and other beneficiaries across the country to avail the benefits of schemes implemented by SFAC, including venture capital assistance and credit guarantee or eNAM linkages. Samunnati will also facilitate the collaboration of FPOs and other agri players with the scheduled commercial banks for the socio-economic development of small and marginal farmers.

SFAC provides small and marginal farmers a platform for increased accessibility and cheaper availability of agricultural inputs, as well as to establish forward and backward linkages in supply chain management. This is done by putting forward multiple schemes related to Credit Guarantee Fund, Equity Grant Scheme, Agri-Business Development through Venture Capital Assistance and Project Development. Samunnati through its AMLA approach (Aggregation, Market Linkage and Advisory) has worked on building an enabling ecosystem for FPOS and other small farmer collectives. Samunnati will offer its assistance to increase the access of SFAC’s schemes to the 1000+ FPOs, FPCs and farmer collectives, as well as 1000+ agri enterprises that they are currently engaging with via this MoU.

Samunnati aims to assist SFAC in:

• On-boarding eligible beneficiaries for the schemes and collaborate with scheduled commercial banks to become eligible financial Institutions.
• Leveraging Samunnati’s strong network of FPOs, other farmer collectives to increase penetration of the schemes to the targeted beneficiaries.Assisting the FPOs and other beneficiaries in processing the applications under the relevant scheme.
• Facilitating sanction of loans to FPOs and other beneficiaries by eligible financial institutions

On the partnership, Anilkumar SG, Founder and CEO, Samunnati, said, “SFAC, under the leadership of Ms. Neelkamal Darbari, has been a pioneer in the promotion and organization of FPOs and FPCs in India, which has brought the much-needed bargaining power and economy of scale for smallholder farmers of the country. Samunnati is proud and grateful to partner with SFAC, and we envisage this partnership to enable access of multi-dimensional benefits of SFAC’s existing schemes to a significant number of smallholder farmers in the country.”