SBI in deal with SLCM for farmer funding

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest commercial bank, and Sohan Lal Commodity Management Pvt Ltd (SLCM), one of India’s leading collateral management service providers and commodity procurement companies, have entered into a strategic tie-up for warehousing receipt financing and collateral management services.  The strategic partnership will deliver post-harvest credit facilities to farmers across the nation, empowering farmers through affordable finance, scientific storage facilities and fair price discovery of their produce. As part of the tie-up, SBI will provide post-harvest credit facilities while SLCM will offer comprehensive warehouse management and other value-added services to farmers, processors, corporates, exchanges, etc. across more than 100 locations in 20 states and in 32 different agricultural commodities.

SBI will use SLCM's ground experience and direct contact with the farmers to ensure that genuine farmers get credit facilities and their produce is safe in the warehouses till realisation. SBI, with a network of over 9,426 rural and semi-urban, 19 agri-commercial and 428 agricultural development branches (ADBs), is the leader in agri-finance in the country with a portfolio of over Rs 1 lakh crore in agri-advances covering more than 1 crore farmers.