Yes Bank to fund farm tourism

With the banks betting on low risk lending, like small and medium enterprises (SME) and agriculture in the recent days, private sector lender Yes Bank is working on micro finance models to fund “farm tourism”, involving small and marginal farmers.

In a first of its kind initiative, the bank is developing several public private partnership (PPP) models of lending, preferably to groups in a cooperative structure, comprising members willing to develop farm lands as tourists’ destination.

Yes Bank is also in talks with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to initially fund the project on a pilot basis in Uttar Pradesh.

“Yes Bank would structure implementation models, and Nabard as part of their effort to evolve innovative financing schemes in the agriculture sector, would offer suitable financial products. The bank, along with Nabard is planning to implement some pilot projects in Uttar Pradesh through this effort,” said Tushar Pandey, country head, strategic initiatives and advisory-government, Yes Bank.

In the next 10-12 years, rural tourism is expected to contribute about 7-10 per cent to the total revenue generated from tourism and close to 15 per cent of the total jobs in the sector, according to a concept paper issued by Yes Bank.

In 2003, Haryana became the first state in the country to launch farm-tourism. However, the project involved 13 farm owners near Delhi, and did not include small and marginal farmers. States like Maharashtra and Kerala have also started farm tourism.