Guwahati: The Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS) has signed agreements under Xamahar Agrifin Challenge fund with ESCO Global Pvt. Limited and Integra Micro Systems Private Limited for bringing in innovative and need-based service offerings for farmers and agricultural practitioners from the state.

ARIAS is implementing the Assam AgriFin Xamahar (Xamahar) Challenge Agriculture Fund, a competitive funding mechanism for supporting innovative approaches, especially by the private sector, to deliver financial services at scale for farmers in key agriculture value chains in Assam.

The project is funded by the World Bank and is being implemented under the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART).

ESCO Global, along with its consortium partner Digisafe Insurance, will provide insurance support to fisheries, cattle farmers, agri and horticulture farmers. Integra Micro Systems along with its consortium partners Fair Climate Fund and Sanjog, will provide end-to-end finance support to farmers for accessing farm mechanization to increase productivity in the target districts.

ARIAS Society has set up the Assam Challenge Fund for Innovative Finance in Agriculture (ACFIFA) to support innovative approaches and deliver financial services at scale for farmers, the Farmer Producer Organization scheme (FPOs), and associated entities. 

The ACFIFA has been named Assam AgriFin Xamahar and its objective is to support the scaling-up of tested innovations by financial service providers like banks, microfinancing institutions, value chain financiers, insurance companies, and payments service providers.

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