BSE E Agricultural signs MoU to enrich Maharashtra's smallholder farmers' income

MUMBAI, 22 June 2021: BSE E Agricultural Markets (BEAM) signed an agreement with Haridra Lakshmi to enhance the smallholder farmers' income in Maharashtra.

The MoU aims to bring the benefit of globally competitive market technologies to enhance the efficiency of physical markets represented by these institutions in areas such as knowledge sharing, education and training, and related events, according to the BSE statement.

Both entities will work closely with the warehouses in the region to adopt electronic negotiable warehouse receipts (eNWRs). Thus, the pact will enable both parties to instill collaboration with meaningful outcomes for the smallholder farmers (SHFs).

Further, both entities would work closely with institutions that have direct and deep connections with the farmers in the state. These include Godavari Urban Multistate Credit Co-Op Society Ltd, Surya Farmer Producer Company, and Tukai Agro Farmer Producer Company.

These institutions and companies collectively have a significant presence in various states, including Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Gujarat.

Their members are also engaged in retail sales and trade of various commodities, including turmeric, cotton, maize, and soybean.

CEO Rajesh Sinha of BEAM said "The MoU shows that it is possible to bring the benefit of cutting-edge market technologies to smallholder farmers (SHF). Physical spot market participants would immensely benefit from such an initiative thus helping farmers get the most competitive prices for their produce."

Member of Parliament Hemant Sriram Patil said that this MoU would enable the farmer producer companies and farmers to get the benefit of cutting-edge market technologies of BSE. Turmeric farmers would benefit immensely from it.

"We are also working on enhancing the processing capacity of Turmeric in the region," he added.

BEAM would work closely with the small holders' farmers associated with these institutions and enable them to trade electronically, thus helping them move to more organised forms of trading.

The farmers will be enabled for "objective quality-based trading, credit linkages, electronic warehouse receipts, and forward markets", thus enhancing their competitiveness in the market, leading to the most competitive price realisation, the exchange added.

BEAM

BSE, India’s premier, and most diversified exchange and the world’s fastest Stock Exchange launched an electronic spot platform for agricultural commodities “BSE E-Agricultural Markets Ltd. (BEAM)” through its subsidiary BSE Investments Ltd. This platform will function at a national level, and institutionalized, electronic, transparent commodity spot trading platform in line with the Prime Minister's vision to create a “single market”. The platform facilitates spot agricultural commodities transactions across the value chain consisting of producers, intermediaries, ancillary services, and consumers. The platform commenced its operations on 11 December 2020.

BEAM has leveraged state-of-the-art technology to offer customized solutions to farmers, traders, and stakeholders to facilitate risk-free and hassle-free purchase and sale of various agri commodities. This platform will ensure reduced cost of intermediation, improved procurement efficiency, enhanced producers’ realization, and ultimately more competitive consumer paid price. The platform will also help eliminate bottlenecks associated with procurement and trading.

BEAM facilitates Storage, Assaying, and other market support services through its ecosystem partners.

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