NEW DELHI, 10 March 2021: A leading aquaculture tech company Aquaconnect has partnered with Bank of Baroda, India’s leading public sector bank to pave the way for access to formal credit for 1.6 million aquaculture farmers.

This partnership has taken place at an opportune time as the Budget extensively talked about developing the fisheries sector with technological and financial interventions.

Bank of Baroda in partnership with Aquaconnect will provide credit access under the Kisan Credit Card scheme at an annualized rate of as low as 10 percent. 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 10 lacs under KCC scheme and fisheries loan. Higher credit limits can also be availed under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and The Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) schemes on case to case basis.

The bank requires minimal and easy to access documents under the KCC scheme such as KYC documents, farming license and land records. Farmers can take avail loans for their working capital needs to support their farm operations.

The company aims to target Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Gujarat and Orissa and later extend it to other states of India. The partnership will benefit 15,00,000 plus  fish farmers & 150,000 shrimp farmers across India.

According to Rajamanohar, CEO, Aquaconnect, “Due to the lack of formal credit access, Indian fish and shrimp farmers depend heavily on informal lending that pushes them to pay annualized interest as high as 40% to finance their farming operations. We are happy to partner with Bank of Baroda to enable low-interest farm loans for the farmers.”

Amit Salunkhe(Dhas) Head BFSI, Aquaconnect says on the partnership, “Aquaconnect’s AquaCRED platform helps banks manage the entire aquaculture lending portfolio throughout the loan lifecycle. We use cutting edge machine learning algorithms and satellite remote sensing analytics, to provide a near-real time view of the portfolio.”

 M V Murali Krishna, General Manager and Head of Rural and Agri Banking Department of Bank of Baroda signed the MoU along with Arpan Bhalerao, Chief Growth Officer, Aquaconnect. Other key persons attended the MoU sigining ceremony are Vivek Gupta, DGM – Rural and Agri Banking, Bank of Baroda, Amit Salunkhe, VP, Sales and Head of BFSI.

 Tthis partnership will be a good opportunity for aquaculture farmers to avail loans at competitive interest rate along with technical expertise for shrimp farming,” Krishna said.

The partnership aims to make the loan application system hassle-free for aquaculture farmers along with access to Aquaconnect’s expertise through farm advisories and ease of buying farm inputs through Aquaconnect App.

To opt for a loan, a farmers can simply reach out to Aquaconnect on toll-free number 1800 123 1263, for loan queries. After which Aquaconnnect conducts the due diligence process and forwards the applications for further processing to BoB.