e-Choupal - at a glance Milestones Commencement of initiative: 2000 • States covered: 9 • Villages covered: 38,500 • e-Choupal installations: 6500 • Empowered e-farmers: 4 million		Agenda for 2012   • States to be covered: 15 • Villages to be covered: 1,00,000 • e-Choupals to be installed: 20,000 • Farmers to be e-empowered: 10 million

Through the e-Choupal initiative, ITC aims to confer the power of expert knowledge on even the smallest individual farmer. Thus enhancing his competitiveness in the global market.
Given the low levels of literacy in the rural sector, the role of the Choupal Sanchalak, the lead farmer of the village, in facilitating physical interface between the computer terminal and the farmers is central to project e-Choupal.		The immense potential of Indian agriculture is waiting to be unleashed. The endemic constraints that shackle this sector are well known – fragmented farms, weak infrastructure, numerous intermediaries, excessive dependence on the monsoon, variations between different agro-climatic zones, among many others. These pose their own challenges to improving productivity of land and quality of crops. The unfortunate result is inconsistent quality and uncompetitive prices, making it difficult for the farmer to sell his produce in the world market. ITC’s trail-blazing answer to these problems is the e-Choupal initiative; the single-largest information technology-based intervention by a corporate entity in rural India. Transforming the Indian farmer into a progressive knowledge-seeking netizen. Enriching the farmer with knowledge; elevating him to a new order of empowerment.

e-Choupal delivers real-time information and customised knowledge to improve the farmer's decision-making ability, thereby better aligning farm output to market demands; securing better quality, productivity and improved price discovery. The model helps aggregate demand in the nature of a virtual producers' co-operative, in the process facilitating access to higher quality farm inputs at lower costs for the farmer. The e-Choupal initiative also creates a direct marketing channel, eliminating wasteful intermediation and multiple handling, thus reducing transaction costs and making logistics efficient. The e-Choupal project is already benefiting over 3.5 million farmers. By 2012, the e-Choupal network will cover over 100,000 villages, representing 1/6th of rural India, and create more than 10 million e-farmers.

A digital transformation

ITC began the silent e-volution of rural India with soya growers in the villages of Madhya Pradesh. For the first time, the stereotype image of the farmer on his bullock cart made way for the e-farmer, browsing the e-Choupal website. Farmers now log on to the site through Internet kiosks in their villages to order high quality agri-inputs, get information on best farming practices, prevailing market prices for their crops at home and abroad and the weather forecast – all in the local language. In the very first full season of e-Choupal operations in Madhya Pradesh, soya farmers sold nearly 50,000 tons of their produce through the e-Choupal Internet platform, which has more than doubled since then. The result marks the beginning of a transparent and cost-effective marketing channel. Bringing prosperity to the farmers' doorstep.

Smart Cards enable farmer identification to provide customised information on the echoupal.com website. Online transactions are captured to reward farmers for volume and value of usage.

Linking farmers to remunerative markets

Farmers grow wheat across several agro-climatic zones, producing grains of varying grades. Though these grades had the potential to meet diverse consumer preferences, the benefit never trickled down to the farmers, because all varieties were aggregated as one average quality in the mandis. Enter ITC's e-Choupal intervention. The e-Choupal site is now helping the farmers discover the best price for their quality at the village itself. The site also provides farmers with specialised knowledge for customising their produce to the right consumer segments. The new storage and handling system preserves the identity of different varieties right through the 'farm-gate to dinner-plate' supply chain. Encouraging the farmers to raise their quality standards and attract higher prices.

ITC provides the farmer appropriate documentation which records the quantity and quality of his output. Payment is instant.				ITC's mobile vans take the message of e-Choupal to new villages. Thereafter, virtual helpdesks enable the farmer to find solutions to his problems through online interactions. ITC has set up VSAT links to overcome connectivity problems.

Managing risks through technology

ITC’s Aqua Care Centre in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, has revolutionised the concept of shrimp seed testing. Its sophisticated laboratory detects the deadly White Spot virus in the shrimp seed and advises farmers on appropriate remedial action.		The whats and ifs in the aqua farmers' life posed daunting odds. They were haunted by the nightmare of contaminated soil, wrong levels of salinity in the water or the killer White Spot virus, any of which could wipe out an entire shrimp crop, until the e-Choupal site provided them the support and the know-how to cope with and manage such risks. Information equips farmers with comprehensive know-how to keep abreast of food safety norms to compete in the international market. Information includes parameters for antibiotic usage, hygienic washing, sanitised dressing and air-tight packing. All these factors help to neutralise the risks involved in aqua farming. Making it economically much more attractive, benefiting hundreds of aqua farmers.

	In the high-risk business of shrimp farming, the wealth of information provided by aquachoupal.com has proved a great boon for farmers in Andhra Pradesh. This success has encouraged ITC to plan its extension.

A dependable knowledge partner

echoupal.com has become popular among coffee growers as an effective platform for global trade.

Coffee planters in India have for years been tossed between the highs and lows of the international coffee market. The information needed to manage risks in the volatile global coffee market, price updates and prevalent trends in coffee trading were just not available to them. Launch of e-Choupal.com has equipped India's coffee planters with appropriate knowledge base and risk management tools. The site arms them with the latest prices posted on commodity exchanges like CSCE in New York and LIFFE in London. Planters have access to technical analysis by experts to help them comprehend trends, trading ranges and chart patterns in simple language. 'Parity Chart' and the 'Calculator' on the site convert the coffee prices quoted in international auctions into raw coffee equivalent for the benefit of the small growers in India. Tradersnet, a special link on the site, brings together a large number of coffee planters, traders and roasters, creating a virtual market for transparent price discovery. ITC empowers Indian coffee growers with expert knowledge in logistics and risk management, thereby enabling them to face global competition.

In addition to assisting with knowledge management  through the website, ITC provides on-ground inputs to farmers on best practices, grading standards, quality policy etc.

" A quiet digital revolution is reshaping the lives of farmers in remote Indian villages.

In these villages, farmers grow soyabeans, wheat and coffee in small plots of land, as they have for thousands of years. A typical village has no reliable electricity and has antiquated telephone lines. The farmers are largely illiterate and have never seen a computer. But farmers in these villages are conducting e-business through an initiative called e-Choupal, created by ITC, one of India's largest consumer product and agribusiness companies."

Mohanbir Sawhney, McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology, Kellogg School of Management, USA.