NABARD Agri Credit Hackathon 2025

Revolutionising Agricultural Finance through Agri Stack Integration

The NABARD Agri Credit Hackathon is being hosted on the platform of the Earth Summit, India’s leading forum for rural innovation and technology. This hackathon is designed to bring together innovators, startups, researchers, and industry leaders to reimagine how agricultural credit reaches millions of farmers by leveraging Agri Stack and emerging digital tools.

Through this platform, participants will submit scalable, tech-driven credit solutions that make lending faster, more inclusive, and farmer-centric. By addressing challenges such as long processing times, lack of credit history, and high transaction costs, the hackathon seeks to unlock the full potential of digital public infrastructure for agriculture.

Winners will gain recognition on a national stage, opportunities to pilot with governments and development agencies, mentorship from experts, and access to investors and accelerators.

Timeline

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Millions of smallholder farmers face persistent barriers to formal credit: long processing time, heavy documentation, limited or no credit history, high transaction costs for small loans, seasonal income that mismatches rigid EMIs, and information gaps between lenders and borrowers. These friction points make small-ticket agricultural lending expensive, slow and largely inaccessible—hindering productivity and resilience at scale.

India’s Agri Stack (verified farmer IDs, crop & sowing registries, land records, soil health card data, consent APIs, etc.) now provides the digital building blocks to address those gaps. Coupled with advances in remote sensing, weather data and alternative data sources, there is a practical opportunity to redesign rural credit flows so they become fast, data-driven and farmer-centric. The hackathon seeks solutions that can plug into this ecosystem and scale across FPOs, JLGs and individual farmer cohorts.

Desired
outcome

Technical
expectations

Innovation
tracks

Deliver a production-ready, scalable digital lending solution that demonstrates all of the following:

Instant credit decisioning

(Target: decision in < 30 minutes).

Dynamic risk assessment

Using real-time Agri Stack and alternative data to reduce NPAs.

End-to-end loan lifecycle automation

(Origination → Underwriting → Disbursement → Monitoring → Collection)

Ecosystem integration

With value-chain partners (inputs, mandis, warehouses, insurers, government schemes).

Farmer-friendly product design,

Including flexible seasonal repayment schedules, configurable loan products (KCC, crop loans, asset finance), and group-lending support for FPOs/JLGs.

Operational scalability & auditability:

API-first architecture, workflow automation, document OCR & e-verification, and real-time portfolio dashboards.

Solutions should integrate Agri Stack components and demonstrate machine-readable outputs/API endpoints:

Mandatory Agri Stack integrations:

Farmer Registry (e-KYC), Crop Sown Registry, UFSI (consent), Land Records, Soil Health Card.

Credit engine:

ML scoring (≥10 alternative parameters), real-time bureau checks (CIBIL/Experian/CRIF), cash-flow forecasting by crop cycle, dynamic pricing.

Platform capabilities:

Multi-channel origination (mobile, web, WhatsApp, assisted), OCR & automated document processing, rule-based approval workflows, API gateway for partners, monitoring/analytics dashboard.

Deliverables:

Runnable model/API for scoring, explainable dashboards, sample integration flows, and a demo of automated loan lifecycle.

what to build

Track 1

AI-Powered Credit Assessment Build ML models that predict farmer creditworthiness (target >85% accuracy), expose a scoring API, and provide explainability.

Track 2

Risk Mitigation & Early Warning Develop a 15-day forward risk dashboard using weather, satellite imagery and market signals; recommend automated mitigation (including insurance triggers).

Track 3

Ecosystem Orchestration Platform Create a marketplace/orchestration layer that embeds finance at the point of transaction (inputs, mandis, warehousing), supports supply-chain financing and integrates government schemes.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Depth and correctness of Agri Stack integration

Predictive accuracy and explainability of risk/credit models

Practicality of product features (repayment flexibility, limit enhancement, group lending)

Operational readiness: API endpoints, automation, UX for low-connectivity users

Scalability and potential to reduce loan processing time, costs and NPAs

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

Recognition

Mentorship from rural experts and industry leaders

Showcase at the National Earth Summit Expo

Operational readiness: API endpoints, automation, UX for low-connectivity users

Access to investors and accelerators

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

Students and Campus Innovators

Rural Tech Startups

Nonprofits with Technical Teams

Independent Developers & Designers

Corporate Innovation Labs

Agri and Tech Professionals

Researchers from Universities and Institutes

Apply now

Note:

Additional data sources are allowed to enhance the solution, but Agri Stack integration is mandatory.
Expected outputs: code/API endpoints, a demo workflow, model validation metrics, and a concise implementation plan for scaling to FPOs and farmer cohorts.

PROBLEM STATEMENT