Innoterra, a Swiss-Indian food and tech platform company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NABFOUNDATION, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NABARD. The MoU aims to develop farmer clusters through products and services of the Innoterra platform. This association will enable both organizations to engage with India's largest farmer collectives' network of over 5000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). The partnership targets to initially serve ~100,000 smallholder farmers in select clusters over the next two years through a range of hi-tech and high-touch Farmer-360 services that will enable a 60 to 100% increase in farmer incomes over 3-5 years.

The MoU was signed by Sanjeev D Rohilla, chief executive officer of NABFOUNDATION and Dr. Pablo Erat, chairman, Innoterra Platform Services in Mumbai, in the presence of Susheela Chintala, managing director and chief executive officer of NABKISAN. Speaking on occasion, Rohilla said, "This is an important partnership for NABFOUNDATION as it will enable our FPOs and smallholder farmers to access a host of services provided by the Innoterra platform. Innoterra's services are crucial to enable better market access, digitalization, traceability of produce, branding and distribution support for our farmers, thus helping them increase their income multi-fold."

Congratulating both NABFOUNDATION and Innoterra teams for the partnership, Erat said, "We are privileged to partner with NABFOUNDATION - it is a major milestone towards our commitment to uplift smallholder farmers. We are excited to open up our hi-tech and high-touch platform to the FPOs in NABFOUNDATION's extensive network, allowing us to create a better future for the Indian farmers jointly."

Innoterra, erstwhile Pioneering Ventures, has recently brought together its incubated companies, including India's leading fruit producer-exporter Desai AgriFoods under its corporate umbrella. The company has already connected more than 100,000 farmers to its hi-tech and high-touch Platform Division. Innoterra platform provides 360-degree services encompassing farm inputs, data-driven advisory, traceability and market access to smallholder farmers in India.