Aquaculture technology venture Aquaconnect on Tuesday said it has partnered with state-owned Bank of Baroda to provide loan access to 1.6 million aquaculture farmers. Bank of Baroda in partnership with Aquaconnect will provide credit access under the Kisan Credit Card scheme at an annualised rate of as low as 10 per cent, according to a statement. The fish and shrimp farmers can also avail the advisory services and quality farm inputs from Aquaconnect platform. Under this partnership, Bank of Baroda has extended loan for up to Rs 10 lakh under KCC scheme and fisheries loan. Higher credit limits can also be availed under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) schemes on case-to-case basis, it added. The company aims to target Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Odisha and later extend it to other states across the country.
“Due to the lack of formal credit access, Indian fish and shrimp farmers depend heavily on informal lending that pushes them to pay an annualised interest as high as 40 per cent to finance their farming operations. “We are happy to partner with Bank of Baroda to enable low-interest farm loans for the farmers,” Aquaconnect CEO Rajamanohar stated. The partnership is expected to benefit over 15,00,000 fish farmers and over 1,50,000 shrimp farmers across India. “This partnership will be a good opportunity for aquaculture farmers to avail loans at a competitive interest rate along with technical expertise for shrimp farming,” Bank of Baroda General Manager and Head (Rural and Agri Banking) M V Murali Krishna added. PTI SM HRS hrs.