HT Bureau
JORHAT, Oct 17: The Jorhat agriculture department in collaboration with the Agricultural Trade and
Rural Transformation Project (APART) hosted the ‘Agri Value Chain Financing Conclave’ at the Jorhat
Theatre Hall here on Monday.
An official of the district agriculture department informed that the programme was organized with an
aim to bridge the knowledge gap and introduce appropriate financial instruments to propagate
provision of financial services in the agricultural sector and for bringing together relevant stakeholders
under one roof for collectively exploring the potential for expanding financial services to empower the
farming community.
The conclave began with the district agriculture officer, Tanay Jyoti Gogoi outlining the objectives of the
event and encouraged the Farmers’ Producer Organisation (FPOs) in attendance to share the day’s
information with their peer farmers.
Thereafter Nitin Singh, the financial services specialist from ARIAS-APART, discussed the ‘Xamahar
project’, detailing its offerings and provisions tailored for Assam’s FPOs and farmers.
It may be mentioned here that under the ‘Xamahar’ initiative APART has collaborated with financial
service providers for deploying various innovative business models and instruments for delivering
financial services to empower those involved in the agricultural value chain.
The conclave highlighted the recent developments in agricultural finance and promoted various value-
chain financing options, including working capital, term loans, insurance, social security schemes, and
digital financial literacy.
Senior officials of the agriculture and animal husbandry and veterinary departments, APART, SBI, PNB,
delegates from five agri-finance firms, representatives from the digital financing literacy initiative
‘Krisarthak’, FPOs and farmers attended the conclave.
