Lawrencedale Agro Processing India (LEAF), an integrated agriculture services major, has said it would bring in Rs 500 crore worth of organised cost-effective credit to marginalised tribal farmers to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.

The Ooty-based firm said it is aligning with financial technology non-banking financial companies (NBFC) to bring in organised credit for marginalised farmers.

The company has about two lakh farmers in its network, with each having landholdings of under two acres.

“Marginalised farmers are struggling to harvest standing crops due to shortage of farm labour. Restricted functioning of wholesale markets is adding to their problems,” Palat Vijayaraghavan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LEAF, said.

“We are addressing these challenges by organising farm labour with all safety protocols and liquidating the aggregated harvest on behalf of farmers in wholesale markets,” he said.

“Marginalised farmers in remote locations of the Western and Eastern Ghats in South India do not have easy access to organised support,” he pointed out.

LEAF is planning to set up 25 Farmer Service Centres in different parts of the country, which would be managed by its team of professional agronomists, who will work with the farmers in the entire lifecycle of the harvest.

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