nurture.farm Launches 'Kavach Bhav Guarantee' to Protect Farmers Against Market Price Fluctuations

The Kavach Bhav Guarantee product aims to help farmers get fair value for their produce and minimize financial losses in case of price fluctuations. While it is difficult to predict the mandi prices for different crops as these prices depend on a large number of variables, nurture.farm has created a risk cover mechanism through which the farmer is compensated for the fluctuations in prices of their end produce.

The advantages of the Bhav Guarantee product offering include an index-based trigger, shorter disbursal window, and direct transfer of the compensation amount to the farmer's bank account.

Dhruv Sawhney, COO & Business Head at nurture.farm said, "Kavach Bhav Guarantee is designed to safeguard farmer's income and aligns with our mission of making agriculture sustainable and viable. With Kavach Bhav Guarantee, we can successfully mitigate risk, minimize risk cover premiums, guarantee returns and, in turn, build for farmer resilience. The product is tailor-made for farmers and will ensure financial safety against price fluctuations.”

According to reports, less than 25% of the farmers in India have been able to avail benefits of MSP for commodity crops, and more than 50% of these farmers end up selling below MSP across 7,200+ agricultural market yards (or mandis) in India. These farmers neither get a fair value for their produce nor fetch a premium for better yield quality. However, unlike commodity crops, MSP is not applicable for vegetable crops thus making vegetable growers vulnerable to price fluctuations. With Kavach Bhav Guarantee, nurture.farm aims to cover both cereal and vegetable crops.

nurture.farm has partnered with Advanta Seeds to launch Kavach Bhav Guarantee for farmers who purchase Advanta’s Raadhika, Jaani or Ratna brand of Okra seeds. Farmers can download the nurture.farm app and scan the QR code that is available on the Okra seeds pack to avail this cover benefit at no additional charge.

Okra is one of the largest vegetable crops in India in terms of value, volume and acreage. Okra is grown over 0.52 Mn Ha in India, and the hybrid seed market is valued at ~INR 650 Cr. Advanta is a leading player in Okra seeds in terms of value, volume and market share across India.

Prashant Belgamwar, Regional Head - Asia & Africa and International Vegetables at Advanta Seeds said, “Advanta has been working in the seeds sector with a “farmer first“ approach. Today, one of the major concerns of farmers is the uncertainty of their ROI due to fluctuating end produce prices, particularly in vegetable crops. Our hybrids have always empowered farmers with higher yields and good-quality produce.”

“This innovative product - Kavach Bhav Guarantee - will complement our products and provide our farmers with an opportunity to protect their cost of cultivation, in case fresh Okra prices fall below the benchmark level. With this initiative, Advanta will continue to protect farmers' ROI by providing unique products and services to farmers. We look forward to covering more than 100,000 Okra growers across the country,” he added.