Sustainability in Action
Web-enablement of the Indian Farmer
ITC's pioneering e-Choupal initiative is a powerful illustration of linking business purpose with a larger societal purpose. The e-Choupal leverages the power of the Internet to empower the small and marginal farmer with a host of services related to know-how, best practices, timely and relevant weather information, transparent discovery of prices and much more. This digital infrastructure is also increasingly being used for channelizing services related to credit and can be extended to areas such as health, education and entertainment.
It can also serve as a strong foundation for linking small and marginal farmers to futures markets to facilitate farmer risk management. The access to e-Choupals, within walking distance from the farm gate, is supplemented through physical infrastructure - the ITC Choupal Saagar - which functions as a hub for a cluster of villages within tractorable distance. These made-to-design hubs also serve as warehouses, and as rural hypermarkets for a variety of goods. In effect, the e-Choupal infrastructure is potentially an efficient delivery channel for rural development and an instrument for converting village populations into vibrant economic organizations.
The network currently comprises 6,500 e-Choupals reaching out to more than 4 million farmers in 40,000 villages in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
