E-receipts against warehouse storage helping farmers in getting credit

eNWRs record goods kept in warehouses and can be used as collateral for loans.

Electronic receipts that record goods kept in warehouses and can be used as collateral for loans are becoming popular with farmers a year after their launch, say finance institutes.

NCDEX, an agriculture commodity derivative exchange, has generated more than 49,000 Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (eNWRs) since September 2017, with the bulk being generated in the last six months.

The transferable receipts cover 3.5lakh tons of commodities, more than 1,600 beneficiaries and 223warehouses across 10 states and one union territory. As many as 77 farm produce organisations have benefited from eNWRs, according data provided by National E-Repository Ltd.

B B Pattanaik, chairman of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA), said eNWRs are good for farmers. “WDRA is constantly making efforts towards enhancing farmers’ income by scientific storage of their produce, avoiding distress sale and better price realization at a later date,” he said.

NERL has been largest and oldest repository and another repository has been set up by the BSE-CDSL.