Mastercard?partnered with mobile money platform?Obopay?to launch a financial inclusion prepaid card for smallholder farmers and rural communities in India

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Mastercard and Obopay announced their collaboration on prepaid cards?for rural communities in India which?will work in tandem with the existing Mastercard Farm Pass platform.

The offering will allow farmers to receive payments into their prepaid card account and use it to transact at local outlets. The?Community Pass digital infrastructure enables farmers who receive the sale proceeds for their crop digital to make purchases even in remote locations that have poor or no connectivity.

Moreover, Obopay Mastercard prepaid cards help farmers to build a transaction history based on their income and expenditure and further access customized credit options. This way, the product can boost?financial inclusion for smallholder Indian farmers.

Obopay will link the online prepaid cards with offline digital wallets to ensure a seamless experience for users. Leveraging the existing acceptance points of sale in villages and semi-urban areas, the solution will also digitize farmers’ spend and income, to increase access to credit alternatives.?The offline wallet feature on the card also enables cash-in-cash-out transactions in non-network areas.

The new card product will mainly target smallholder farmers, Self Help Group members, small buyers, traders, and the participants of the adjacent rural ecosystem.

The new collaboration is one of the examples of the currently growing agri-fintech trend, which?allows small farmers to monetise their daily efforts.