Jammu and Kashmir Bank today entered into an agreement with Staragri, a post-harvest solutions company for agricultural business, for providing affordable financing to farmers and agri-traders.
The partnership will primarily focus on collateral management services and warehousing receipt financing.
The agreement was signed by J&K Bank Senior President S K Bhat and Staragri Regional Head Vishal Pathak at the bank's Corporate Headquarters here.
"With increased focus on agricultural sector, the tie-up is literally a shot in the arm as it will facilitate easy access to secure low-cost credit for the farming community and improve their output in markets thereby realising higher incomes," Bhat said.
Through this partnership, the bank will deliver post-harvest credit facility to farmers and players in agri-business chain across India, he said adding the aim is to empower farmers through affordable finance, scientific storage facilities and fair price discovery of their produce.
The two companies aim to reach farmers and agri-traders across India with fair cost funding, warehousing, quality storage facilities through J&K Bank's rural and semi-rural branches and Staragri's offices spread across India.
As a part of the tie-up, J&K Bank will provide post-harvest credit facilities while Staragri will offer warehousing and other value-added services through its wide spread network of warehouses to farmers and agri-traders.
"The produce stored in Staragri's state-of-the-art warehouses will act as collateral for the finance extended by J&K Bank," General Manager Staragri Rajesh Gupta said.
The collateral management services provided by Staragri will help farmers in realising a better price, a J&K Bank spokesperson said.
