ITC’s diversified business portfolio has enabled the Company to create and nurture numerous farmer partnerships in many value chains. These cover multiple crops and geographies. Leveraging these partnerships, ITC has created a number of unique community development programmes by synergising its social sector initiatives with its business plans.

ITC believes that the inter-dependence between its agri-based businesses and the farm sector constitutes a sustainable platform to enlarge its contribution to the Indian rural sector.

The core principles that drive these initiatives are:

• Customise the development model to address the diversity of rural India.
• Enable even marginal farmers to access knowledge to compete on an equal footing in the market place.
• Empower rural communities, so that development planning and implementation are participatory.

ITC’s rural development initiatives embrace several critical areas:

• Web-enablement of the Indian farmer to help him access relevant knowledge and services to enhance farm productivity - Details...
   
• Social and farm forestry to generate farm incomes in tribal hinterlands while restoring ecological balance - Details...
   
• Integrated watershed development to reverse land degradation and provide critical irrigation - Details...
    
• Economic empowerment of women to transform them into powerful agents of social change - Details...
   
• Enhancing livestock quality to significantly improve dairy productivity - Details...
   
• Primary education for the rural poor to enhance employability - Details...