2025, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part L
Digital payment models for food and agricultural products
Author(s): Suman Sharma, Ayesha Rai, Pradeep Kumar Joshi and Anjali Gurung
Abstract: Digital payment models are reshaping transactions across food and agricultural value chains, yet evidence on which designs work best for efficiency, reliability, inclusion, and cross-border use remains fragmented. This study develops a typology of models—instant account-to-account rails, agent-assisted AePS/USSD, wallet silos, QR-linked acceptance and invoicing, rule-based collections (BBPS), and purpose-bound e-vouchers—and evaluates them using a convergent mixed-methods design. Data combine national payments statistics, e-marketplace dashboards, and policy documents with primary surveys of farm households, traders, and FPOs/SMEs (N=1,650) and 60 key-informant interviews. Econometrically, staggered difference-in-differences exploits time-location variation in QR density, BBPS onboarding, and voucher rollouts; multilevel logistic models assess adoption among women and smallholders; Cox hazards estimate time-to-settlement; and corridor panels compare cross-border instruments. Interoperable instant rails are associated with higher producer price realisation (+3.8 percentage points), shorter cash-conversion cycles (−2.6 days), and fewer disputes (−0.9 pp) relative to cash-dominant markets. Median settlement time falls from 5.6→1.8 days (staples), 2.9→0.9 (perishables), and 7.4→2.7 (cash crops). Inclusion improves when offline capability and agent assistance are present (women adoption OR 1.42, smallholders OR 1.36), while local network outages—not provider quotas—explain most residual delays. On cross-border corridors, interlinked fast-payment systems deliver markedly lower fees (~1.3-1.8%) and near-real-time settlement (~1.4-2.0 hours) versus correspondent banking (4-5%, 22-42 hours). Qualitative evidence highlights transparency, faster reconciliation, and readiness for embedded finance (invoice discounting, pay-as-you-go inputs) as primary experiential gains, with agent liquidity and grievance redress as persistent frictions. The findings suggest that interoperable, instant, and inclusion-ready payment architectures, embedded within digital marketplaces and supported by offline modes, are pivotal levers for competitiveness and welfare in food and agriculture.
Pages: 1121-1128 | Views: 497 | Downloads: 86
Download Full Article: Click Here
How to cite this article:
Suman Sharma, Ayesha Rai, Pradeep Kumar Joshi, Anjali Gurung. Digital payment models for food and agricultural products. Asian J Manage Commerce 2025;6(1):1121-1128.
Other Journals