Industry overview
What is shaping agriculture
Agriculture supports a large share of rural livelihoods, and its buying decisions are made close to the soil: at the village dealer, the cooperative and the neighbouring lead farmer. Seasonality, weather and credit shape almost every choice a farmer makes.
- Purchase decisions cluster in short pre-sowing windows
- Trusted dealers and lead farmers carry more weight than advertising
- Digital payments, agri-fintech and crop insurance are changing how farmers buy
Client background
A rural NBFC focused on farm loans, working in Maharashtra & Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A rural NBFC focused on farm loans
- Sector
- Agriculture
- Team engaged
- Finance & Accounts
- Services
- MIS & financial reporting, Data analytics & dashboards, Virtual CFO services
Client challenge
Branch managers sent monthly reports in different spreadsheet formats, and the leadership team spent days reconciling them before board meetings. Seasonal repayment patterns made it hard to tell genuine stress from normal harvest-linked timing.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: giving an agri-lending company a monthly view of its portfolio.
- Establish accurate, reconciled numbers management can rely on.
- Put a reporting and compliance rhythm in place that runs on time.
Target audience
Scope: 40 branches, loan and collection data from two systems.
Audiences we typically reach in agriculture
Farmers and growersAgri-input dealersCooperatives and FPOsAgronomists and extension workersAgri-fintech users
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Maharashtra & Karnataka. Market: India. 40 branches covered.
- India
Research methodology
A structured finance engagement: review the current process, set up controls, run the routine and report.
- 1Brief
- 2Finance process review
- 3Dashboard build
- 4Insight
Our finance team agreed standard definitions for disbursements, collections and overdue buckets, then built automated data feeds from the loan and accounting systems. The dashboard showed branch performance against seasonal norms, so a dip during sowing months was not mistaken for a problem.
MIS & financial reportingData analytics & dashboardsVirtual CFO services
Sampling strategy
- Every ledger, entity and transaction stream in scope was covered, with sample-based checks during review.
Data collection
- Source documents, bank statements and ledgers were collected through a secure shared workspace.
Data quality & validation
- Maker-checker review on all entries
- Bank and ledger reconciliations
- Client approval before every filing or report
- Supporting documents kept for every figure
Data analysis
- Variance analysis against budget and prior periods
- Ratio and trend analysis
- Cash-flow view for management
Key findings
- Board reporting moved from a week of reconciliation to a standard monthly pack.
In agricultural finance, comparing performance against the crop calendar is essential to reading the numbers correctly.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: in agricultural finance, comparing performance against the crop calendar is essential to reading the numbers correctly.
- Keep the monthly routine and review exceptions with management every period.
Business impact
- Management could see early warning signs by branch and crop region, and introduced targeted follow-ups where repayment stress appeared outside normal seasonal patterns.
Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Interactive dashboard
- Monthly MIS pack and reconciled books
- Compliance calendar and filings
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how do credit and insurance shape adoption?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.