eChoupal

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In News: Bayer CropScience Limited is partnering with ITC Limited’s Agri Business Division to extend the reach of its Crop Protection products through ITC’s e-Choupal 4.0 platform.

e-Choupal

• • e-Choupal is an initiative of ITC 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.
  • e-Choupal is the first private sector initiative in Agricultural Marketing. 
  • It is a business platform consisting of a set of organizational sub-system and interfaces connecting farmers to global markets. 
  • This common structure can be leveraged to procure/produce a host of products and services for the farmer as a producer as well as a consumer. 
  • The e-Choupal business platform consists of three layers, each at different levels of geographic aggregation. Each of the three layers is characterized by three key elements.
    • The infrastructure (physical or organizational) orchestrating the transaction, and place.
    • The entity (person or organisation) orchestrating the transaction, and
    • The geographical coverage of the layer.
  • The first layer consists of the village level kiosks with internet access (or e-Choupal) managed by an ITC-trained local farmer (called a Sanachalak) and within walking distance (1-5 kms) of each target farmer. There may be generally one e-Choupal per cluster of five villages. The second layer consists of a bricks-and-mortar infrastructure (called hubs) managed by the traditional intermediary who has local knowledge/skills (called a sanyojak in his new role) and within tractorable distance (25-30 Kms.) of the target farmer.

• The ITC chose to operate the platform on the following three business principles;
  • Free information and knowledge which ensures wider participation by the farmers.
  • Freedom of choice in transactions (farmers after accessing information at the e-Choupal, are free to transact their own way.)
  • Transaction based income, stream for the Sanachalak by tying his revenue stream to the transaction (on a commission basis.)
• The ITC has provided internet access in rural areas in several regions of the country which enables farmers to directly negotiate the sale of their produce with ITC. 
• The farmers do not have to pay for the information and knowledge they get from the forum of e-Choupal. 
• The principle of e-Choupal is to inform, empower and compete on the basis of click and mortar capability. There are close to 7,000 e-Choupal in operation.

Benefit of E Choupal

• It assesses the farmer to gain a high profit margin and correct price.
• Increase efficiency and potential for improving crop quality making agricultural activities more competitive.
• e-Choupal brings transparency into the agricultural market.
• It decreases the cost of transportation and also helps the village students to collect information through internet accessibility.
• It decreases the role of middlemen in agriculture and protects farmers from exploitation.
• It also provides daily need items, manufactured by the ITC which help them fulfill their basic needs.
• It generates employment in the village economy which decreases the activity of Diasporas.
• Due to generation of employment, revenue increase which can be used to develop infrastructure.
• It also gives information about weather and provides a facility of weather forecasting by Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
• E-market develops as a spot where transaction occurs and supports service to future exchange.

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