Understanding Mobile-Enabled Agri-Credit Adoption Among Rice Farmers

The mSTAR/Bangladesh project, working with the Rice Value Chain (RVC) Project led by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), conducted pre- and post-assessments in Jessore and Satkhira to understand the benefits, challenges and overall experience of farmers who adopted an agri-credit product delivered via IFIC Mobile Banking. This product provided loans for agricultural inputs to smallholder farmers amounting to BDT 10,000 (US $125) with a six-month repayment period. This product stemmed from technical assistance that mSTAR/B provided to the RVC project to identify opportunities to introduce digital financial services (DFS) to their beneficiary farmers. More details on the technical assistance provided to RVC by mSTAR/B can be found in this report and additional details on the agri-credit product can be found in this document.