Key Differentiators in the Industry

SLCM is an ISO 9001: 2008 & ISO 22000: 2005 certified, post harvest Agri-Logistics Group. The Group has differentiated itself from the industry on the following:

PROCESS DIFFRENTIATOR

While the industry has laid emphasis on creating infrastructure; SLCM has devised SOPs amalgamated with technology & agriculture domain expertise for crop preservation agnostic to infrastructure, location & weather pattern.

The total production of food grain in India crossed 250 million tonnes during the year 2011-12 & if we plan to create infrastructure as per the production, the value is exuberant & will take years to build the same. Henceforth, the stress upon scientific warehousing practices is the need of the hour wherein commodities can be stored irrespective of the warehouse & its condition. With our constant advocacy for scientific warehouse management practices, the group has brought major shift of the government from infrastructure creation towards scientific warehousing.

IMPACT DIFFRENTIATOR

In a country like India, where post harvest losses are pegged at 10% of the entire produce which amounts to ~Rs 80,000 cr, SLCM has been instrumental in devising technology that has cut post harvest losses to 0.5%. It translates into a savings of 9.5% of the entire produce which roughly estimates about 76,000 cr, if practiced on the entire crop production of India. The losses in commodities are mainly attributed to infrastructure however, lack of knowledge of managing & maintaining premises with inefficient processes are the key culprits behind the losses.
We are the first company in the warehousing vertical that has applied for patenting this scientific technology of storage under aegis of “AGRI REACH”. Since we have handled a throughput of 240 Million MT of commodities; we have saved 9.5% of the handled commodity which is about 228 Million MT in past 3 years of operations. It is close to the yearly production of India. To conclude, we can say that the group has saved one year production of agriculture commodities through its defined SOPs.

SERVICE DIFFRENTIATOR

To augment the agriculture sector, SLCM took agriculture financing initiative for farmers by making a forward integration into warehouse receipt financing. The Group acquired a Chennai-based non-banking finance company for offering agricultural loans, last year. It operates under the registered trademark of “Kissandhan” that provides agriculture loans against storage receipts of agri commodities irrespective of the financial statement & net worth of the borrower.

With the vision to provide solution to the biggest challenge of the sector i.e. farm credit, Kissandhan was set up to offer agriculture financing to the small & marginal farmers, kaccha & pucca artiyas & other stakeholders in the agriculture value chain. Now, the farmer gets funding on their collateral while SLCM ensures the quantity & quality of the commodity & the collateral can be sold at best available price at the discretion of the farmer which reduces the risk of distress selling. Additionally, farmer saves 9.5% of its produce during the storage period which would have been degraded otherwise.

Till now, Kissandhan has brought real “Inclusive Growth” through availability of credit on agriculture commodities to 29,700 farmers, as per an internal study.

SLCM has tied-up with several private & government sector banks to help Indian farmers to complete post harvest activities and avail storage facilities for their produce.

The writer has been working with some top Warehouse Receipt Financing and he has the perfect knowledge and experience to write something about ministry of agriculture being an Indian.

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