ITCMAARS, the phygital eco-system has enhanced net farmer returns upto 30%

MUMBAI, 26 July 2024: In the Company’s 113^th AGM address Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, ITC Ltd, shared his Vision on ITC: Stakeholder Value through Purposeful Performance. Relevant Excerpts from the speech are below:

The ITC Next strategy leverages the Company's century-long relationship with farmers to promote value-added agriculture, accelerate digital adoption and build climate resilience. ITC’s world-class brands anchor demand-responsive agri-value chains that ‘produce the buy’, providing its businesses with unique competitive advantages.

As one of the largest procurers of agri-commodities, ITC supports 20 agri-value chains, sourcing over 3 million tonnes from 200 districts in 22 States. This enables ITC to derive unique sourcing efficiencies apart from offering identity-preserved, attribute-specific, traceable agri-commodities to discerning customers in India and overseas. ITC exports agri-commodities to over 85 countries, linking farmers to global value chains.

At the core of ITC’s interventions is ITCMAARS – the ‘phygital’ eco-system that enables wider agri-tech adoption, enhances efficiencies and access to markets as well as financial services. Leveraging the power of collectives, the ITCMAARS ecosystem now constitutes over 1,650 FPOs covering more than 1.5 million farmers. By 2030, we aspire to connect over 10 million farmers. The predictive, hyperlocal & dynamic advisories coupled with an input marketplace have enhanced net farmer returns upto 30% in a short span of time.

Over 10,000+ soil tests, with personalized crop nutrition recommendations based on sophisticated AI-based algorithms, have been facilitated resulting in 10-15% reduction in fertiliser usage and 15-20% improvement in crop yields. Agri-tech solutions are also being progressed across multiple value chains including drone usage, which focuses on nano nutrients and crop protection.

Through remote sensing, ITCMAARS has digitized 6 million acres covering 1,000 FPOs to help deliver contextual and crop stage-specific personalized advisories. Recently, ITCMAARS launched the world's first GenAI-based regional voice chatbot for farmers called ‘KrishiMitra’ that has been co-developed with Microsoft.

ITC’s Exclusive PPPs with NITI Aayog in 27 Aspirational Districts

ITCMAARS also harnesses the collective knowledge garnered over decades to provide farmers best-in-class services. This includes the experience gained from ITC’s Baareh Mahine Hariyali programme, which enabled substantial increase in farmer incomes. The expertise gained has also enabled us to implement such best practices in 45 Aspirational Districts.

Exclusive PPPs with NITI Aayog in 27 such districts have improved yields up to 30%, reduced cultivation costs by nearly 15%, thereby boosting farmer incomes up to 60%.  In addition, over 5 lakh farmers are trained annually in best practices through Farmer Field Schools and demonstration farms organised by ITC.

ITC Next Strategy in Agriculture Scaled up ITC’s Value-Added Agricultural Products Portfolio

Enabling farmers to enhance their range of remunerative crops for both domestic and international markets, the ITC Next strategy has substantially scaled up its Value-Added Agricultural Products portfolio. This includes Spices, Coffee, Frozen Marine Products, Processed Fruits, Medicinal & Aromatic Plant Extracts, among others.

The state-of-the-art Spices processing facility in Andhra Pradesh leverages ITC’s strong backward integration, identity-preserved sourcing, Organic and Integrated Crop Management (ICM) programmes, as well as custody of supply chain.

ITC takes pride in being a farmer-centric organisation that contributes significantly to rural empowerment. I am confident that ITC’s impactful initiatives will continue to strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of India's agri sector.  

Note: AgriTimes has a content partnership agreement with ITC's e-Choupal