There is a wave on selling products and services , technology, cold stores, and tools to small holder farmers. Starting from a solar driers to farm supplies to seeds.
These kind of business opportunities are double edged sword for a farmer if the acess to market of the produce is not part of the package. Any farm investment, especially the capital input focussed without guarantee of better market returns puts the farmer at substantial risk.
The approach based on technology to improve the economic aspects, generally is a doom loop, in a balanced kite of livelihood driven farming. Focus should be on ecological diversity of the farm , whole linking to markets enables farmers to generate income streams.
You are absolutely correct @Shashi. With the market support with the technology also allows potential funders to invest more, as less risk is involved in the investment. They do reduce the interest rate for the beneficiaries as machine provider is putting a guarantee. We have been working on the similar model with our solar dehydrator, where we are processing wild berries in kashmir, small banana in remote orissa, pineapple in manipur and spices in arunachal pradesh, where farmers have no other choice to throw away or sell their prices at very low prices. Using solar dehydrator they can command the market price and sell when the market will offer good prices.