Opportunities for Digital Financial Services for Agricultural Mechanization in Bangladesh: A Market Landscape Assessment

The mSTAR/Bangladesh project, working with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia - Mechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MI) project, conducted an assessment in six districts of southwest Bangladesh to look at opportunities for digital financial services integration in agricultural mechanization services. This included an examination of potential financial products that could be proposed to financial institutions for creating opportunities for mechanization service providers and users to access financial support through digital channels. The assessment considered feedback from farmers, local service providers (LSPs), dealers, the Government of Bangladesh, national and local private companies, and microfinance institutions (MFIs).

The report includes details on the financial transactions of each of these actors, as it relates to agricultural mechanization, as well as providing recommendations for actions that can be taken to better address their needs, particularly through the use of digital financial services.