Mastercard on Wednesday announced a collaboration with Gramophone, a leading agritech platform, to enable 2 million smallholder farmers on the Mastercard Community Pass platform in India with access to agri inputs. The two entities will work towards powering offline payments for farmers in rural and remote areas through the Community Pass financial inclusion card. Gramophone is also expected to enable their existing five lakh farmers with offline payments and credit.
The Community Pass provides a digital ecosystem for buyers who are looking for sustainable sources of quality produce at favourable market prices and supply chain financing; and for smallholder farmers looking for reliable markets, fair prices and access to credit. The platform brings together various agri-sector stakeholders in a centralized agricultural marketplace, amplifying the collective positive impact on farming communities. Community Pass services also include an offline payment card, and inputs credit that will be rolled out in the coming months.
This collaboration with Gramophone will ensure that farmers are able to buy the right inputs at a fair price. The service will be rolled out later this year, starting with inputs and offline payments, while access to credit will be launched early next year. In addition, Gramophone plans to roll out innovative loyalty/cash-back schemes for its members via the offline-enabled card. Through this collaboration, Gramophone also seeks to enable easier access to working capital for their farmer-producer organizations and small retailers for driving inputs and scaling business.
“In line with the Government of India’s vision to digitize the agriculture sector, Mastercard has been working to bring key stakeholders in the agri ecosystem onto one platform to ease credit and input access for farmers and enhance their incomes. This collaboration with Gramophone will ensure that farmers can access quality inputs of their choice, on easy credit terms, as well as the benefits of digital payments even without internet connectivity or smartphone availability,” said Ricardo Pareja, Head of Community Pass Markets, Mastercard.
“At Gramophone, we have consistently delivered top-tier agronomy advisory and quality products through our, in-house technology platform enabling Input Commerce. Now, we are excited to add Mastercard’s advanced technology stack and partner networks to further enhance India’s agricultural ecosystem. Starting with a pilot in Madhya Pradesh, we will aim to support farmers across India by increasing their incomes by 50-60 per cent, through access to inputs and credit,” said Tauseef Khan, Co-founder, Gramophone.
Mastercard Community Pass is a shared, interoperable digital infrastructure for rural populations that has benefitted over 2 million Indian farmers across 25 districts in eight states, to date.