Agrifuture Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2025 - Winner

Founded 72 years ago by farmers as a cooperative bank and named after a key agricultural product (sugar beet); Şekerbank has embraced its agricultural roots to drive innovation in agricultural banking. Recognizing the growing need for sustainability in agricultural production, the bank partnered with Farmolog, a startup focused on digitalizing agriculture in line with sustainability standards. Together, they launched a pilot project with 180 large-scale farmers who are members of the Union of Beet Growers’ Cooperatives (PANKOBİRLİK), one of Turkey’s largest and most historic farmer cooperatives. As part of this initiative, the entire production process of these 180 farmers was digitized end-to-end. Inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, water, tractors, labor, and seeds—as well as energy usage—were monitored in real time through a custom-built dashboard. In addition, farmers who expressed a need for financial support during the production cycle were offered agricultural loans under preferential terms. The motivation behind this project stems from Turkey’s unique position in the agricultural landscape. Part of the land where agriculture revolution first took place 12,000 years ago today lies within modern Turkey, making agriculture one of the most strategically important sectors for the country. Beyond economic importance, agriculture holds significant emotional value in Turkish culture due to the country’s globally renowned culinary heritage. Economically, Turkey is home to nearly 2 million registered farmers and boasts an annual agricultural output of $74 billion, making it the largest agricultural producer in Europe and the eighth largest in the world. Agriculture is one of the few sectors in Turkey with a consistent net export surplus, and even the country’s thriving tourism industry is closely tied to its agricultural output. While the consequences of being homeland of agriculture such as traditional knowledge and ancient farming practices contribute positively to productivity, they also pose challenges for economic and environmental sustainability. Many farmers are reluctant to abandon familiar yet harmful methods, lacking sufficient motivation to adopt more sustainable alternatives or scientific practices. This presents significant issues for stakeholders in the supply chain—such as food producers, textile companies, and the HORECA industry—who increasingly demand traceable, sustainably produced agricultural inputs. As digital tools for real-time monitoring, historical data analysis, precision harvesting, pesticide optimization, and targeted field interventions become essential in modern farming, demand for such innovations is rapidly growing. With all those reasons and many not mentioned more; we have initiated this project and as a result of this project; agricultural activities have been digitized, a specific and special dashboard have been designed, carbon emission measurements were conducted for the agricultural products involved. For this, the emission calculation infrastructure provided by Cool Farm—a global standard in agricultural sustainability metrics—was used to quantify and validate the environmental impact.