Kiran Narayanan By Express News Service KOCHI: Officials of Palliyakkal Service Cooperative Bank at Ezhikkara panchayat of Paravur were ecstatic when Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac announced the statewide implementation of ‘Kerala Food Platform’, an online platform for procuring and marketing farm yields on the lines of Uber, while presenting the budget last week. For, the platform is based on the successful integrated farming model that they devised two decades ago. The bank debunked the notion that crops cannot be cultivated in areas surrounded by salt-water when it entered the farming sector in 2000. More importantly, the integrated model ensured that the bank was helping farmers at every stage of cultivation.“The bank devised a strategy which helped farmers at different phases, starting from funding to the marketing of products. Be it providing loans or land, extending technical support or any other issues related to agriculture, the bank was and will be there to help. All we want is the farmer’s passion in farming,” said MS Jayachandran, president of the bank. Landowners in the panchayat allowed the bank to use their property for farming for free since January 2000. At present, more than 1,000 families under different self-help groups are involved in the bank’s initiative, which is spread across cultivation of paddy, fruits and vegetables, dairy and poultry farming and others. So far, the bank has sold `35-crore worth of value-added items made using the farm products. Thousands of agriculture students from 56 countries and other states also visited the farms to learn about the project. Inspiring the way forward Officials of Kerala Development Innovation Strategy Council (K-DISC), which is implementing the Kerala Food Platform, approached the bank six months ago with the plan. “Taking our initiative as a model for their project, K-DISC has started software development. Like ours, the platform will not be limited to sale of products but be involved in all phases of production,” said Jayachandran. Over 40 cooperative banks across the district also came up with projects based on the bank’s model. “We have been giving interest-free loans for paddy farming and other loans at four per cent interest. Neither their property nor gold is mortgaged. We also follow a humane approach when it comes to repayment of the loans. All the products are insured and are sold through the bank’s outlets,” said Vijayan M P, secretary of the bank. What’s the plan? As per the budget document, the plan is to bring farmers, cooperative societies, banks, other producers, large and small-scale merchants and consumers under one platform. There will be facilities for quality certification as well as partnership guarantee schemes on the platform. Besides Ezhikkara, the agri-production of Vadakkanchery municipality in Thrissur has also been included in the platform on a pilot basis.

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