Dairy-tech start-up Stellapps has tied up with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to digitise the milk procurement value chain and promote banking facilities at milk collection centres. As part of memorandum of understanding, a pilot project has been launched in four villages with 200 farmers at a greenfield dairy in Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri district.

Through the tie-up, Stellapps is aiming to bring dairy farmers in the financial mainstream across villages in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, and Rajasthan in the coming months, the company said in a statement. IPPB will provide access to cash and other banking services like deposits, Aadhar-enabled payment services, domestic money transfer, bill payments, and other related services. Stellapps said it plans to leverage IPPB’s last-mile distribution network of over 1.36 lakh post offices and nearly 1.9 lakh postmen and Grameen Dak Sevaks, equipped with smartphones and biometric devices.

Stellapps had recently launched a fully automated digital direct farmers payment product for dairy processors, including cooperatives called “mooPay”.

J Venkatramu, MD & CEO, IPPB, said, “This strategic partnership aims to create significant opportunities and expand access to a range of financial services for millions of unbanked and underbanked dairy farmers. With dairy supply chain being an important part of the rural economy, IPPB is committed to empowering dairy farmers.”

“The partnership with IPPB will help us enfold more farmers with credit and insurance services and get the digital economy to Indian rural villages,” said Ranjith Mukundan, CEO, Stellapps.

Stellapps is introducing IPPB through its dairy partners where the direct farmer payment solutions have been implemented. The local post office will designate an official who will visit the respective milk collection centre for providing banking services to farmers. Farmers also have an option of travelling down to the nearest post office and avail the services, it said.

Source : The Hindu Business Line , Feb 24,2021