The country’s biggest lender SBI on Friday stated it has included YONO Krishi platform with the government’s first online horticulture seed portal to facilitate the shipping of high quality seeds at farmers’ doorsteps. YONO Krishi integrates with ICAR IIHR seed portal to attain out to 2.7 crore clients registered on YONO, SBI told.

The Indian Council of Agriculture Researchers (ICAR) has been bringing new innovations in agriculture through research and improvement since last 91 years. Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) crew has delivered out a virtual portal for farmers to buy seeds of high yielding and disease resistant varieties, it stated.

Farmers across the country can store for IIHR sort of seeds suitable for specific climatic zones and geographical regions, SBI stated. It will empower farmer clients to buy the high yield, high quality seeds being sold by the research institute. The integration was released by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in the presence of SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar in advance on Wednesday (August 26), the lender stated.

“Wherever technology has been used, it has helped the agricultural regions significantly, in which banks have made big contribution over the years. State Bank of India, being the biggest bank, has performed a pivotal position all along,” Tomar stated.

With this integration of ICAR-IIHR with YONO Krishi, farmers will be able to purchase seeds licensed by the studies institute, the minister stated. He stated the complete amount of government schemes is reaching directly to beneficiaries because of transparency and SBI has contributed in implementation of presidency tasks like PM-Kisan, Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana as well as transparent payments to the identified beneficiaries of the subsidies.

“This is another step towards fulfilling the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of doubling farmer’s income by 2022. With a digital-first approach, it is part of our continuous endeavour to offer innovative digital banking solutions to all our customers across the country,” the SBI chairman stated.

SBI’s one-stop YONO (you only need one) virtual platform which was launched about two-and-a-1/2 of years ago has seen greater than fifty six million downloads with over 27 million registered users. YONO has partnered with over eighty ecommerce players in more than 20 classes and has additionally forayed into worldwide markets which include the United Kingdom and Mauritius.