ITC-IBD to extend e-Choupal network to three Telangana districts

ITC's International Business Division (ITC-IBD), one of the India's largest exporters of agricultural commodities, will be spreading its e-Choupal (village internet kiosks) network to Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh for the benefit of farmers growing soybean, maize and pulses.

ITC-IBD chief executive, S Sivakumar, told Business Standard that the company was operating an e-Choupal network in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, which would be extended to the districts in Andhra Pradesh.

The farmers of the three districts, located on the borders of the Maharashtra state, cultivate soybean, maize and pulses crops in an extent of about 2 lakh hectares.

ITC has conceived e-Choupal as a more efficient supply chain aimed at delivering value to its customers on a sustainable basis. With a judicious blend of click and mortar capabilities, village internet kiosks managed by farmers "� called sanchalaks "� themselves, enable the agricultural community to access ready information in their local language on the weather and market prices, disseminate knowledge on scientific farm practices and risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs and purchase farm produce from the farmers' doorsteps.

While the farmers benefit through enhanced farm productivity and higher farm gate prices, ITC benefits from the lower net cost of procurement having eliminated costs in the supply chain that do not add value.

"We have started identification of villages and selection of Sanchalaks. We will commence operations in a span of two months," Sivakumar said, adding that ITC-IBD was planning to open 100 e-Choupals initially to cover 500 villages spread over the three districts.

He said at present the maize produced in the three districts was mainly catering to the domestic market. Over a period of time, ITC-IBD would like to ensure that the agricultural commodity would be "export competitive".

As maize has multiple uses as food additive as well as feed ingredient to the poultry industry, Sivakumar felt that the commodity had good export potential.