GUWAHATI: In order to help farmers as they are hit by COVID-19 pandemic, the Syngenta India Limited, Syngenta Foundation India and Agri-Entrepreneur Growth Foundation (AEGF) collaborated to design and launch a set of programs at national level, fetching earnings worth Rs. 4.87 Crores.
At the onset of the lockdown, an initiative was undertaken to provide financial services support to the farmers and underprivileged sections in Bihar through the extensive network of Agri Entrepreneurs (AE). The digital financial transactions worth more that Rs. 13.5 Lakhs were successfully completed across 10 districts of Bihar, through Spice Money and IDFC tools during March and April, 2020. In collaboration with the Bihar Government AEs ensured the availability of 13,266 ration cards for families below poverty line. The AEs helped more than 2,000 women farmers to access their Jan-Dhan accounts and have facilitated 2,000 farmers access PM KISAN, the national direct cash transfer scheme.
“Since March 2020 lockdown, our AE’s have helped 12,290 smallholder farmers sell 6642 metric tons of produce and have enabled them earn Rs. 4.87 crores,” said Dr. KC Ravi, Chief Sustainability Officer of Syngenta India.
Rajendra Jog, CEO of AEGF said that the AE program model positions an AE to fully understand the situation and respond quickly and precisely to farmers’ agricultural needs, thus providing a high quality of response.
