SBI join hands with Adani Capital for co-lending to farmers

Country’s largest lender SBI has joined hands with Adani Capital as a co-lending partner to provide loans to farmers in the country.

State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a master agreement with Adani Capital Private Ltd (Adani Capital), the NBFC arm of Adani Group, for co-lending to farmers for purchase of tractor and farm implements, to increase efficiency in farm operations and productivity of crops, SBI said in a release on Thursday.

SBI said, this partnership will enable it to target farmer customers in the interior hinterland of the country looking for adoption of farm mechanization to enhance productivity of crops.

“SBI is actively looking at co-lending opportunities with multiple NBFCs for financing farm mechanisation, warehouse receipt finance, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) etc, for enhancing credit flow to double the farmers’ income,” it stated.

Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI said this partnership shall help SBI to expand customer base as well as connect with the underserved farming segment of the country and further contribute towards the growth of India’s farm economy.

“We will continue to work with more NBFCs in order to reach out to maximum customers in far-flung areas and provide last-mile banking services,” Khara said.

The aim of the company is to contribute to farm mechanisation and play a role in improving productivity and income of the farm segment, Gaurav Gupta, MD & CEO, Adani Capital said.

“Our aim is to make economical credit available to the micro-entrepreneurs of India. Our partnership with SBI is to target the unbanked/underserved Indian farmers,” he added.

Under RBI guidelines on co-lending schemes for banks and NBFCs, the aim is to improve credit flow to unserved and underserved sectors of the economy as priority sector lending, and at affordable rates.