Mohan Padmanabhan
Kolkata, July 1
MANY State Governments and even some international development agencies have evinced interest in the e-choupal initiative launched by ITC Ltd, especially the creative harnessing of information technology across the value chain on a massive scale, for speeding up community development works.
The e-hubs are being created by the company to service the information needs of clusters of villages, as well as create the infrastructure to facilitate efficiency in purchase and sale of high quality inputs and farm produce.
It is learnt that the comprehensive online network, created by the company (through the pioneering soya choupal in Madhya Pradesh in July 2000) mainly to connect the Indian farmer with the domestic and international markets for realisation of a better value for his produce, has caught the fancy of some of the international development agencies, which see an opportunity here to reach out to India's rural mass at a minimal cost.
Described by company's insiders as the largest internet-based intervention in rural India by the corporate sector, some 770 e-choupals covering 4,500 villages across four States now reach out through the vernacular medium to more than half-a-million Indian farmers, providing web-enabled real time data on weather, commodity prices and best farming practices.
ITC leverages its effective proprietary knowledge base of customer behaviour and customised product development to link the farmer's produce to appropriate customer segments.
The e-initiative has also enabled the international business division (IBD) of the company to increase agri exports by over 48 per cent during 2001-02 at Rs 535 crore against the Rs 361 crore in the previous financial year, despite the near stagnation of aggregate exports of the country.
According to ITC's 2002 Annual Report, the division's IT- based customer relationship management (CRM) initiative represented a "trend-setting customer-centric business model", that vindicated its utility even in the commodities business by efficiently servicing the specific needs of identified customers.
The online initiative now covers soyabean in Madhya Pradesh, wheat in Uttar Pradesh, aquaculture ("aquachoupal" in Andhra Pradesh) and coffee ("plantersnet.com in Karnataka).
The plan, according to sources, is to extend this facility to a range of crops, including cotton, which holds meaning for ITC's new life-style retailing business, based on the concept of 'fashion to fibre'. The company, it is pointed out, is already committed to cover some two million Indian farmers in about one-lakh villages within the next five years.
According to the report, the 'aquachoupal' has helped aqua farmers in Andhra Pradesh to deal with the threats posed by undetected virus, soil contamination and faulty levels of salinit, any one of which could ruin the entire shrimp crop.
Risk management initiative, which has been made possible by the choupal, has added a new value dimension to the economics of aqua farming, benefiting hundreds of farmers in the State.
The laboratory at the Aqua Care Centre in Kakinada, which helps farmers to detect the deadly White Spot virus in the shrimp seed, is said to have revolutionised the concept of shrimp seed testing. The company is now planning to introduce this facility to West Bengal.
The 'tradersnet', a special link on the 'plantersnet.com' Web site, brings a large number of coffee planters, traders and roasters together in a virtual market, providing opportunities to discover the most attractive prices. The planters are also enabled to understand trends, trading ranges and chart patterns from customised fundamental and technical analysis by experts. Growers, according to the report, can also determine quoted raw coffee prices at international auctions from the 'Parity Chart' and the 'Calculator' provided on the site. The volumes traded through the Web site are said to be averaging more than 200 tonnes per month.
The company has also joined hands with the Tobacco Board to develop and launch the tobacco farmers' portal, named 'Pogaku Vedika', in Telegu, and 'Tambaku Vedike' in Kannada, to provide online information on the modern farm practices, integrated pest management, curing and grading techniques, post-harvest product management and prices prevailing in global markets and at the auction centres in the country.