E-CHOUPAL – One-Stop Agriculture Kiosk

E-CHOUPAL – One-Stop Agriculture Kiosk

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Get all my farming information from one place to buy seeds, fertilizers or equipment, and get the best price for my harvest

WHO NEEDS IT?

Indian farmers who cannot compete effectively while in the dark on crop prices, weather forecasts, and best farming practices.

Buyers such as ITC Limited, an Indian conglomerate with an agri-business unit, who want to purchase produce directly from farmers, without the added cost of middlemen.

WHAT IS THE CONNECTIVATION?

e-Choupal is an initiative of ITC that enables farmers to negotiate prices with ITC, order inputs such as fertilizer and seeds, and buy/sell at physical hubs.

Internet kiosks are set up in villages empowering and uniting Indian farmers to access real-time crop prices and weather forecasts, enabling them to quickly know the best time and place to sell their crops, creating a fair market.

WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE?

Before e-Choupal, India’s farmers had to sell their produce in local mandi (government mandated markets) where they often dealt with exploitive middlemen.

Lack of fair compensation for high-quality goods crushed farmers’ motivation to invest in and produce superior crops.

IMPACT

Approximately 6,500 Internet kiosks have reached 4 million of India’s farmers located in 40,000 villages across 10 states. E-farmers are seeing higher profitability as a result of lower transaction costs and fair compensation for higher quality produce; ITC is benefiting from lower costs and higher quality produce. By 2012, ITC plans to expand to 20,000 kiosks reaching 15 million Indian farmers in 100,000 villages.

COMPANY “AHA”

Timely information to my suppliers can streamline the value chain and lead to better quality and prices that benefit buyer and seller.

EMERGING TRENDS

• Access to Information: The increasing availability of Internet access in remote places puts Indian farmers in touch with critical information for the first time in their lives.

• Globalization: Increasing access to real-time data is becoming increasingly important to global competitiveness and a necessity for Indian farmers to get the best prices for their crops.

BASIC HUMAN NEEDS

• Fairness: Indian farmers can only compete successfully in a trading system that is just and whose rules are simple and clear.

• Recognition: Indian farmers are motivated to produce the highest quality goods possible when they see their hard work will be properly acknowledged and rewarded.

WHY THEY ARE WINNING

• ITC kiosks connect over 4 million Indian farmers with information they need to prosper, and reinforce India’s long-established culture of village communication hubs and self-help groups, earning ITC the trust of these farmers.

PRICING

• Market Makers: ITC created an online market directly between itself and India’s farmers.

• Pre-Sales:Transactions are negotiated online, leaving only the actual exchange at physical hubs.

• Fee-for-Service: Farmers operating the Internet kiosks earn service fees for sales.

PRODUCTION

• Internet kiosks with access to real-time pricing and weather information, as well as best practices based on ITC’s 90 years of farming experience.

• Physical trading hubs in close proximity to farmers.

OFFERING

Transparent clearing house for selling crops.

Opportunity for ITC to buy directly from farmers instead of paying more to go through middlemen.

DELIVERY

Farmers access information at Internet kiosks where they can negotiate sales with ITC.

At its physical hubs, ITC buys farmers’ goods and sells them inputs.

MARKET

Rural India’s farmers in need of price, weather, best practices, and quality inputs in order to be competitive.

ITC as a direct buyer of farmers’ goods and seller of inputs.

PARTNERS

• India’s government is a strong backer of e-Choupal.

• ITC selects farmers to be in charge of its kiosks to ensure that fellow farmers understand how to use the kiosk effectively.