Enduring Value. For the Nation. For the Shareholder

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INTRODUCTION



India is second most populated country in the world.

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy.

It contributes around 26% of the total GDP.

Agriculture provides livelihood to about 65% of the labour force and accounts for 8.56% of India's exports.

The fragmented farms are constraining the risk taking ability of Indian farmer locking him up into a vicious cycle of :

low risk taking ability, low investment, low productivity, weak market orientation, low value addition, low Margin, low risk taking ability.


e-choupal concept



e-choupal is a Hindi word which means “village meeting place”. Market is a meeting place where vendors and customers come together to do transactions. e-choupal is a virtual market place where farmers can transact directly with a processor and can realize better price for their produce.

Idea Generation
The idea of creating and leveraging an electronic market place came from the brainstorming session done by senior executives of ITC-IBD.

Idea Initiation
The challenge of servicing the changing needs of global customers, competing with the aggressive transnationals trading behemoths in a low margin agri-commodity business, operating from a high cost economy like India and looking for alternative markets in the period of recession were the basic business driver behind the new business model.

Conceptualization of the project

What’s the best corporate business structure model for rural India?
Does it require a new breed of leaders?
What are the challenges that these leaders are facing?
Will they have to work within new organizational structures?



Identifying the Project Goals


Helps enhance farm productivity by
Disseminating latest information on district level weather forecasts for short & medium terms
Best practices in farming
Supply of quality inputs (seed,herbicide, fertilizer, pesticides etc) in the village itself