College of Agricultural Information Technology

Anand Agricultural University

Anand – 388 110

Seminar on
E-choupal

Prepared by:
Bharati
Reg. No.: 06 – 0169 – 2015
3rd Semester

Seminar Guide:
Dharmesh k Vyas
Associate Professor
Sign :

e-Choupal Page 1
Sr.No. Content Page. No.

1 Introduction 3

2 Organizer 4

3 Reason For Establishment 4

3.1 ITC’s Rationale and Services to the Farmers 4

4 Effects of e-Choupal 5

4.1 e-choupal process 6

5 Products and Servicess 6

6 The e-Choupal advantage 7

7 Features of the E-Choupal Web Site 9

8 Scope of E-choupal 9

9 Challenges 10

10 Conclusion 11

11 References 11

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1 Introduction

1.1 E-choupal (ITC-IBD)

E-Choupal is a hindi word which means a village meeting place, and “E” here stands for
electronic so it is a village meeting place on a electronic platform. It is a virtual market place
where vendors and customers come together to do transactions. E-Choupal It is a virtual market
place where farmers can transact directly with a processor and can realize better price for their
products.

E-Choupal is an initiative of ITC(Indian tobacco company) Limited a conglomerate in India, to

link directly with rural farmers via the Internet for procurement
of agricultural and aquaculture products like soybeans, wheat, coffee, and prawns. e-Choupal
tackles the challenges posed by Indian agriculture, characterized by fragmented farms, weak
infrastructure and the involvement of intermediaries. The programme installs computers with
Internet access in rural areas of India to offer farmers up-to-date marketing and agricultural
information.

Figure 1. Webpage of e-choupal

e-Choupal Page 3
 2 Organizer

ITC—a 94-year-old Indian Agribusiness Company with annual revenues of US$ 2.6
billion—has taken on the role of a network orchestrator in this meta-market by stitching
together an end-to-end solution. The solution simultaneously addresses both the
viability concerns of the participating companies by virtually aggregating the demand
from thousands of small farmers, and also the value-for-money concerns of the farmers,
by creating competition among the companies in each leg of the value chain.
International Business Division (IBD), a division of ITC started in 1990, is engaged in
exports of a range of agricultural commodities. Today, IBD continues to deliver agri-
commodities like Feed Ingredients - Soya meal, Rapeseed Meal; Food grains - Rice,
Wheat & Wheat Products, Pulses; Coffee, Black Pepper; Edible Nuts & Marine
products like Shrimps and Prawns. It is also now sourcing domestic markets in
products such as wheat, maize , and pearl millet for its own use as well as for niche
customers .

3 Reason For Establishment

3.1 ITC’s Rationale and Services to the Farmers:

3.1.1 Current Unsustainable Situation

 Small farmer livelihoods: Small farmers are currently utterly unable to

compete with global agribusinesses on the free market, and they have no alternate
marketing choice other than Government-managed market yards

 Government subsidies: Increasing Minimum Support Prices through

Government agencies is economically unsustainable

 Inefficient use of inputs: Current use levels of water, fertilizer, and pesticides
are ecologically unsustainable. This is especially true in cases where more inputs do

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 not result in higher yields

3.1.2 What will make it sustainable?

 Not subsidies, but efficient services – Ideally these would be along the lines of meta-
markets and would not displace small/ marginal land owners
 Market linkages for output - Demand driven rather than supply driven value chains
 Non farm employment opportunities - Services for urban & international customers

4 Effects of e-Choupal

ITC Limited has provided computers and Internet access in rural areas across several agricultural
regions of the country, where the farmers can directly negotiate the sale of their produce with
ITC Limited. Online access enables farmers to obtain information on mandi prices, and good
farming practices, and to place orders for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers. This helps
farmers improve the quality of their products, and helps in obtaining a better price. Each ITC
Limited kiosk having Internet access is run by a sanchalak — a trained farmer. The computer is
housed in the sanchalak's house and is linked to the Internet via phone lines or by
a VSAT connection. Each installation serves an average of 600 farmers in the surrounding ten
villages within about a 5 km radius.

Since the introduction of e-Choupal services, farmers have seen a rise in their income levels
because of a rise in yields, improvement in quality of output, and a fall in transaction costs. Even
small farmers have gained from the initiative. Farmers can get real-time information despite their
physical distance from the mandis. The system saves procurement costs for ITC Limited. The
farmers do not pay for the information and knowledge they get from e-Choupals; the principle is
to inform, empower and compete. e-market place for spot transactions and support services to
futures exchange. There are 6,500 e-Choupals in operation. ITC Limited plans to scale up to
20,000 e-Choupals by 2012 covering 100000 villages in 15 states, servicing 15 million farmers.

e-Choupal Page 5
Figure 2. e-choupal kiosks

4.1 e-choupal process

ITC

5 Products and Servicess

5.1 Content

The service provides access to the following types of content through the e-Choupal
website, all of which is in local languages, including Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada.
 Weather - forecasts from Government Meteorological Departments.

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  Scientific farming practices - provided by Agri-universities.
 Market prices at the village - collected from mandis (regional markets).
The website is a dynamic portal in the sense that there is regular updating of the static
contents.

5.2 Other Products and Services

 Farm Inputs such as fertilizers and seeds (screened for quality).

 Marketing of Outputs (convenience, lower transaction costs).
 FMCG goods and services of daily use.
 FAQs –Frequently asked questions on cropping issues and e-mail facility to link
up with scientists for specific solutions

6 The e-Choupal advantage

ITC's e-Choupal project is a winner—for farmers who get better remuneration and for the
company that's assured quality inputs for its business Imagine an illiterate farmer in a remote
village in Madhya Pradesh sitting at a desktop wired up to the WWW through a small
VSAT(Very Small Aperture Terminal) link, powered by a tiny power generator by the side, and
surfing away to glory downloading invaluable information about weather forecasts and sowing
trends.

 IT for the Masses

• The e-Choupal project covers over 35,000 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttaranchal providing
millions of farmers with critical information on farming.
• The Choupal services are being delivered by over 6,000 Sanchalaks and over 17,000 Upa
Sanchalaks to these remotest areas.

e-Choupal Page 7
  Multiple Benefits
• Farmers can look at weather forecasts, order fertiliser and herbicide, and consult an
agronomist by e-mail when their crops turn yellow.
• At some eChoupals they can even buy life insurance, apply for loans and also check their
children’s exam results.
• While much has been written about the social benefits of ITC’s eChoupal, the matter of
the fact is that the project was conceptualised with a pure business focus to create farmer
communities in villages to facilitate sourcing of high-quality farm produce for the
company’s fast growing agribusiness.

 Better Payment
• In IT parlance, eChoupal is an intelligent blend of applications like CRM(Customer
relationship management) and supply chain management. For instance, by helping the
farmer identify and control his inputs and farming practices, and by paying more for
better quality, ITC has been able to preserve the source and improve the quality of
produce.
• In the commodities market, these two factors are helping ITC create a definite
competitive advantage.

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7 Features of the E-Choupal Web Site

e-Choupal Page 9
 8 Scope of E-choupal

• ITC now plans to leverage its eChoupal infrastructure to sell third-party products, provide
rural market research services, and in the social sector, to provide services like health
advisories and enable e-governance.
• Under the brand ‘Choupal Sagar,’ these shopping complexes house a procurement centre,
retail store, food court, farmer facility centre and healthcare clinic.
• In healthcare services, a pilot project has been launched along with leading corporate
healthcare service providers, to extend reliable and quality healthcare services to the
remotest villages. Several health camps conducted during the pilots are encouraging and
the project is in the midst of scaling up to other locations.

ITC eChoupal is currently piloting delivery of quality education services to the rural areas
leveraging the physical and digital infrastructure developed for commodities sourcing and
consumer retail services

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Figure 3. Webpage of choupal sagar

9 Challenges

 Process : appropriate systems for quality testing and pricing; logistics; complex
transactions.

 Physical : bulk storage and handling hubs.

 Technology : IT equipment suitable for rural environment; reliable power source;

adequate connectivity; user support

 Social : selection of appropriate villages; selection of the appropriate sanchalak;

building trust in the community; training; securing stakeholder involvement (by

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 Public Oath).

10 Conclusion

• An innovative strategy which is eloborative & extensive in reral market so far.

• Rural wealth creation in agriculture through securing empowerment,collaboration
and competition.
• A transformational initiative for sustainable development of society.
• Commitment to transparency & the respect & fairness with which both farmers &
local partners are treated.

11 References

• http://www.e-agriculture.org/sites/default/files/uploads/media/Choupal.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Choupal
• http://www.networkmagazineindia.com/200605/coverstory08.shtml
• http://pt.slideshare.net/Venky7/itc-echoupal-and-saagar/11
• https://www.google.co.in/search?q=conclusion+of+echoupal&biw=1366&bih=657&tbm=isch&s
ource=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1r8HNieLOAhVJs48KHdHcDSMQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=XDi_0ssaN
OIdEM%3A

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