Warehouse Development Regulatory Authority Partners With SBI To Offer Low-Interest Loans To Farmers

India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) and the Warehouse Development Regulatory Authority (WDRA) have signed a pact to facilitate low interest rate loans to farmers.

The MoU aims to increase awareness of a new loan product called the Produce Marketing Loan, which exclusively funds against electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (e-NWRs) with features such as no processing fee, no additional collateral, and attractive interest rates.

The MoU also aims to provide information to depositors of the benefits, besides doing further outreach activities to improve agricultural pledge finance in India.

In a statement on Monday (16 January), the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said that the product is envisaged to have far reaching consequences with regard to acceptance of e-NWRs among small and marginal farmers.

"It has the potential to make significant impact on the finances of rural depositors by preventing distress sale and releasing better prices for the produce," the ministry said.

Combined with the inherent security and negotiability of the e-NWR system, the Produce Marketing Loan will go long way in improving rural liquidity and increasing farmers income, it said.