By signing the Memorandum of Cooperation, OTP banka in Serbia joined the “Digital Village” project, which Delta Holding, the BioSens Institute, and Mokrin House launched in 2022. The project is a progressive initiative in the segment of comprehensive digital transformation of the overall agricultural activity in Mokrin – a large and advanced rural area. Thanks to this cooperation, agricultural producers who are members of the “Digital Village” project will be provided access to all services and products from the portfolio, such as investment loans, and loans for working capital. They will be able to use the Bank’s digital services and numerous financial education opportunities.
“Digital village” aims to create opportunities for easier, more efficient, and sustainable production, higher earnings for agricultural producers, and a more attractive life in the countryside, with a special focus on young people. Aware of the fact that agriculture has a strong development potential, as well as its share in the entire Serbian economy, the inclusion of the first financial partner – OTP banka Srbija, represents an additional incentive not only for this project but also for the entire Serbian countryside.
The “Digital Village” project is completely complementary to the concept of Mokrin House, which is the connection between urban and rural lifestyles. Digitization of agricultural production is one of the key assumptions for revitalizing and modernizing rural life and attracting young people to stay and return to rural areas. Such projects change the perception and improve the overall quality of life in the villages. We want to show in Mokrin that it is possible and that it becomes an example that others will follow. Joining OTP banka Srbija to the “Digital Village” project will further accelerate that trend,” – said Branimir Brkljač, Founder of Mokrin House.
With a developed and specialized range of products and a large number of customers, OTP banka Srbija attaches great importance to agribusinesses in Serbia. Over the years, the Bank aspires to create banking products following the customers` needs, but also to contribute to the creation of a stimulating financial environment in which farmers will be able to develop under modern trends in agribusiness, and local specificities.
“Given that the key idea of the “Digital Village” initiative is to cover most of the needs of the average farmer in Serbia through a specially created software platform, and that OTP Bank is one of the leaders of digitization in the banking sector, inclusion in this project was a completely natural step for us. Data show that about 70% of the total global arable lands are in the hands of small farmers, but that they participate in the world market with only 35% of the products. We hope that by joining this project we will help to change these statistics for the better and that we will be able to provide a more meaningful cultural life in Mokrin,” – said Marija Popović, Member of the Executive Board at OTP banka Srbija.
“The greatest achievement of the digitization of agriculture is the integration of different sectors and the enabling of closer connection and better flow of information, thus higher quality solutions and optimization of the entire process. As a result, the financial sector got the opportunity to develop much better, targeted products and services based on digital systems and a greater flow of information (so-called big data). We believe that the inclusion of OTP Bank Srbija in the partnership with this initiative is a clear indication of the importance of the synergy of different sectors, the joint action of which enables the provision of more stable risk assessments, and thus the creation and development of banking services for users,” – said dr. Vladimir Crnojević, Director at the BioSens Institute.
“We launched the “Digital Village” project together with partners the BioSens Insitute and Mokrin House in 2022 with the desire to enable rural producers, and above all young people, to acquire new knowledge about modern agriculture, improve the quality of their products, increase earnings and ensure a better standard of living for themselves and their families. Our goal is to make agricultural production easier, more profitable, and more attractive for small producers, especially young people from the countryside. We are very glad that the circle of partners is expanding, and I believe that in this way we will achieve the desired goal faster,” – said Marija Desivojević Cvetković, Vice President at Delta Holding.
Thanks to this system, farmers can easily and quickly access basic service information (weather forecast, exchange rate list, fuel prices, fertilizer prices, prices of goods on domestic and foreign exchanges), expert-advisory information (notifications about the occurrence of diseases and pests, as well as recommended species treatments to combat them, recommendations related to dosing of artificial fertilizers, optimal deadlines for agricultural operations), satellite monitoring of production plots with basic indicators, and in the next phase financial support will be provided (loan inquiries and obtaining offers, loan applications through the platform, requests for production insurance policy offers, offers for savings and deposits).
Source: the Bank`s press release dated July 17, 2023
