LandBank, AgriNurture team up to provide financing to farmers

MANILA, Philippines — AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) and state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines have partnered to jumpstart ANI’s plan to provide electronic vouchers to farmers in rural communities in the country.

The memorandum of understanding signed by both companies aims to provide the unbanked masses access to the banking grid despite being located in areas with no access to wired internet.

The platform will provide micro-financing for farmers in targeted clusters and cooperatives in rural farming communities in the form of e-voucher.

Under the MOU, ANI and affiliates will select and endorse farmers and cooperatives for financing by Landbank, which is mandated to provide accessible and technology solutions to provide timely and responsive financial services to farmers and MSMEs among others.

ANI will also help farmers market their products and provide them the technical assistance they need.

It is envisioned that farmers, producers, distributors and end users would have access to much needed micro finance for inputs and make cashless payments within its ecosystem secured by a purchase contract.

Farmers can use the e-vouchers to buy from accredited merchants everything they need to produce contracted crops. They can easily tap the credit using their smartphones upon accreditation.

ANI and Landbank are preparing to launch the agri ecosystem with initial implementation in Luzon and Mindanao,  focused on major crops such as rice and banana.

If the program succeeds, ANI would cover the rest of the country and add more crops to the coverage of the program.

ANI is one of the Philippines’ major exporters of fruits to the world and pioneer of coconut water and plant-based products.  It recently launched its plant based coconut ice cream and meat substitutes under Big Chill.