Dhaka — The ifarmer is an agricultural fintech company that uses technology in the financial sector. The company started its journey with the aim of making the financing and supply process easily available in the agricultural sector of Bangladesh.
There are about 20 million small-scale farmers in Bangladesh who do not have access to credit or investment. More than 10,000 registered farmers are associated with the iFarmer platform. They receive financial, advisory support. ifarmer has farms in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Pabna, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Bogura, Faridpur, Nilphamari, Natore, Jessore, and Khulna.
The ‘iFarmer' application is designed for farm investors. Using that, they can invest in different portfolios of iFarmer. Various agricultural sectors (such as cattle farms, tilapia fish farms, tomato farms) are considered as portfolios.
Firm investors can track their investment portfolios until the portfolio expires and receives direct updates. This application includes information about their latest updates and ifarmer's activities at different times.
About 70 % of the money that farmers get comes from microcredit or unofficial sources. The interest rate on their loans is higher. Financially, farmers are not interested in investing in high-quality agricultural inputs, which will help them in production, such as seeds, pesticides, etc.
And after thinking about these issues, the path of ‘Ifarmer' started. Their main goal is to alleviate this financial crisis of the farmers and ensure food security in our country.
ifarmer Seedstar Bangladesh 2019 has been selected as the winner and 2018 as the most socially influential Bangladeshi initiative by the Embassy of Switzerland.
In 2020, iFarmer has invested in the blockchain and, in addition to financing farmers, has developed lending models that enable farmers to receive financial support and keep the supply and production system efficient.
Ifarmer plans to stay with more than three lakh farmers by 2025. Retail outlets will be opened to provide services to farmers with money, input, and advice.
Agri-wallets for credit, savings, and investments will be created for farmers using proprietary credit scoring models through partnerships with banks (farmers will be able to avail of other benefits including seeds from eFarmer using it).
Raisul Alam, Business Development Manager, ifarmer, said, ‘In the future, Business to Consumer (B2C) online grocery delivery service will be launched from our platform. Selected agricultural products will be exported to SEA, EU, and US markets.
In addition, agricultural credit models and supply chain models will be expanded to other South Asian countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
