ITC’s e-Choupal: An Overview

Kuttayan Annamalai
Sachin Rao
University of Michigan
Business School
 e-Choupals: An Overview
S
a
n
c V
VSAT/ Internet h i
Information Flow a l
I l l
T a a
C k g
e
ITC Local
Hub
Samyojak
Physical Flow

Agricultural Best-Practices, Weather, FAQ’s

Prices
Produce
Virtuous Aggregated demand for inputs
Cycle
Agricultural Inputs
Information from the ‘trenches’
Ideas for new products and services
 Farmers’ Gains
 Access to information
300 – Empowered decisions
– Improved agriculture
250 100  Economic benefits
through lower
200 transaction costs and
Costs(Rs./ MetricTon)

70 process efficiencies
150
 Served with dignity
100 50  Knowledge bundled sale
of goods and services
50 50  Co-opted in product
0 design
0
Mandi e-Choupal  Hope for a brighter
future
Handling and Transit Losses Labor Costs
Bagging and Weighing Transportation
 ITC’s Gains
 Lower procurement
600 costs
 Direct interaction
500
with farmers -
Control on quality &
Costs (Rs./ Metric Ton)

400 250
supply security
300

75
 Low cost
200 100 distribution channel
70 0
100
10 85  Access to market
0 intelligence
0
Mandi e-Choupal

Commission Handling and Transit Losses

Labor Costs Bagging and Weighing
Transportation
 Role of Technology
 Allows ITC to communicate with a million farmers
 Enables real time information access
– Price discovery –
 Captures farm-level intelligence
 Improves productivity through agricultural
education
 Orchestrates network that makes e-Choupal
possible
– IT enabled network of partnerships:
Agricultural research centers, input providers,
banks, agents, and farmers