IndiaRetailBiz

“ITC’s proven expertise in the agri sector will now be available to the poorest of farmers in Tamil Nadu and give them an opportunity to leverage the power of information technology and also benefit from high quality extension services.” — Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Limited.

e-Choupal, an agri-initiative, started eight years ago in 2000, as part of Corporate Social Responsibility programme of ITC Ltd — one the country’s largest industrial conglomerates– has forayed into Tamilnadu via Sivagangai. This will help local farmers achieve productivity gains for paddy crops.

ITC will be setting up a dedicated website for farmers in Tamil. This website together with a lot of other digital information on know how, best practices, weather information, etc, will prove to be of immense benefit to farmers in the area.

ITC’s e-Chaupal model, which tackles challenges facing the Indian agriculture, including, fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries, among others, was started eight years ago in the year 2000. Today, with nearly 6500 kiosks spread across nine states, e-Chaupal happens to be the largest internet-based rural inititiave, reaching out to over 4 million farmers in over 40,000 villages.

Apart from Tamilnadu, e-Chaupal services are already available in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerela.

ITC has recently launched an agri extension service called ‘Choupal Pradarshan Khet.’ The high quality extension service, which demonstrates benefits of best agri practices, results in productivity gains for farmers, is available in several parts of the country and covers an estimated 43,500 hectares of land.