ITC launched its e-Choupal initiative in 2000 to address issues faced by Indian farmers including lack of price transparency and bargaining power. The program places computers with internet access in villages, managed by local farmers trained as "sanchalaks". Farmers can access real-time local and global commodity prices, weather forecasts, and place orders for seeds and fertilizers. Over 3.5 million farmers in thousands of villages now use e-Choupal, gaining information and access to markets previously unavailable to them. The initiative has been highly successful in empowering small farmers and reducing reliance on middlemen.
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ITC launched its e-Choupal initiative in 2000 to address issues faced by Indian farmers including lack of price transparency and bargaining power. The program places computers with internet access in villages, managed by local farmers trained as "sanchalaks". Farmers can access real-time local and global commodity prices, weather forecasts, and place orders for seeds and fertilizers. Over 3.5 million farmers in thousands of villages now use e-Choupal, gaining information and access to markets previously unavailable to them. The initiative has been highly successful in empowering small farmers and reducing reliance on middlemen.
ITC launched its e-Choupal initiative in 2000 to address issues faced by Indian farmers including lack of price transparency and bargaining power. The program places computers with internet access in villages, managed by local farmers trained as "sanchalaks". Farmers can access real-time local and global commodity prices, weather forecasts, and place orders for seeds and fertilizers. Over 3.5 million farmers in thousands of villages now use e-Choupal, gaining information and access to markets previously unavailable to them. The initiative has been highly successful in empowering small farmers and reducing reliance on middlemen.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
ITC launched its e-Choupal initiative in 2000 to address issues faced by Indian farmers including lack of price transparency and bargaining power. The program places computers with internet access in villages, managed by local farmers trained as "sanchalaks". Farmers can access real-time local and global commodity prices, weather forecasts, and place orders for seeds and fertilizers. Over 3.5 million farmers in thousands of villages now use e-Choupal, gaining information and access to markets previously unavailable to them. The initiative has been highly successful in empowering small farmers and reducing reliance on middlemen.
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A Case-Study : ITC e-Choupal
About ITC-IBD ITC is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of over US $14 billion and a turnover of US $3 billion
ITC has a diversied presence in Cigarettes, Hotels,
Paperboards & Specialty Papers,Packaging, Agri- Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery CASE Initially, the agricultural commodity trading business was small compared to international players. By 1996, the opening up of the Indian market had brought in international competition. Large international companies had better margin-to- risk ratios because of wider options for risk management and arbitrage. For an Indian company to replicate the operating model of such multinational corporations would have required a massive horizontal and vertical expansion. STEPS TAKEN In 1998, after competition forced ITC to explore the options of sale, merger, and closure of IBD, ITC ultimately decided to retain the business. The ITC-IBD taken the challenges to use information technology to change the rules of the game and create a competitive business that did not need a large asset base. Idea Generation The idea of creating and leveraging an electronic market place came from the brainstorming session done by senior executives of ITC-IBD. To reach across a wide range in rural India, the leaders have to understand and unleash the power of the small-scale entrepreneur in village communities. ITC e-Choupal and the Strategy ITC followed a different media/communication strategy which is more elaborate and extensive in rural marketing so far, which benefits both the farmers and the organization The strategy is use the Information Technology and bridge the information and service gap in rural INDIA which gives an edge to market its products like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides and other products like consumer goods. With this strategy it can also enhance its competitiveness in global market for agri exports. equirements e-Choupal equired ITC to make significant investments to create and maintain its own IT network in rural India and to identify and train a local farmer to manage each e-Choupal. The computer, typically housed in the farmers house, is linked to the Internet via phone lines or, increasingly, by a VSAT connection. It serves an average of 600 farmers in 10 surrounding villages within about a five kilometer radius. Uses The company has initiated an e-Choupal effort that places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages The e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of information (choupal means gathering place in Hindi) and an e-commerce hub. Benefits Using the system costs farmers nothing. The farmers can use the computer to access daily closing prices on local mandis (government mandated markets) Helps to track global price trends or find information about new farming techniques either directly or, because many farmers are illiterate, via the sanchalak (the village farmer who runs the e-Choupal and acts as ITCs representative in the village). In addition they can also know about weather forecast (local). They also use the e-Choupal to order seed, fertilizer, and other products such as consumer good from ITC or its partners, at prices lower than those available from village traders How e-Choupal Works Sanchalak: a lead farmer, who acts as the interface between computer and the farmer. ITC accumulates information regarding weather, modern farming practices, and market prices fromsources like Meteorological Department, Agri- universities, mandis (regional market) etc. All information is customized according to local farmers requirements and provided into the local language through computer set up by ITC in Sanchalak¶s house. Then uploads all information on to e-Choupal web site. Information regarding weather and scientific farming helps farmers to select the right crop and improve the productivity of their farms. Availability of market information helps farmers to become market oriented. They know what price ITC is quoting and the price prevalent in the local market, there by helping better price realization for farmers. Power of information is working as the catalyst of transformation of the life of farmers by helping them to get improved yields from their farms and better price realization Facilitation of flow of information and knowledge
It transmits ? (weather, prices, news),
It transfers
(farm management, risk management) It facilitates sales of ? (screened for quality) and Facilitation of flow of information and knowledge
It offers the choice of an alternative O-
marketing channel (convenience, lower transaction costs) to the farmer right at his doorstep It is an interlocking network of partnerships (ITC + Met Dept + Universities + Sanyojaks, the erstwhile Commission Agents) bringing the ³best-in class´ in information, knowledge and inputs This is model with a number of non-conventional characteristics customer centric capable of being used for many commodities and multiple transactions uses local talent and local people and develops local leaders can be extended to local as well as global procurers This is model with a number of non-conventional characteristics stimulates local entrepreneurs to extend their innovativeness uses all the existing institutions and legal frameworks and G WTH Launched in June 2000, 'e-Choupal', has already become the largest initiative among all Internet-based interventions in rural India. 'e-Choupal¶ services today reach out to more than 3.5 million farmers growing a range of crops. Conclusion ITC e-Choupal, an innovative strategy which is elaborative and extensive in rural markets so far. Critical factors in the apparent success of the venture are ITCs extensive knowledge of agriculture , retaining the integral importance of local partners. Conclusion ITC has been successful in making the farmer feel the sense of ownership and enthuse him to generate additional revenue by eliminating middleman. E-choupal has provided economic benefits even for the small farmers. Every beneficiary gets benefit and the equitable benefits makes the adoption very rapid. EFENCES http://www.itccorporate.com/agri_exports/e -choupal.html#top http://agricoop.nic.in/stats.htm http://library.thinkquest.org THANK Y U