ITC to set up 9 more rural hubs "Choupal Saagar" for farmers

Kolkata, Jan 4 (UNI) ITC is planning to set up nine more "Choupal Saagars", digitally equipped rural hubs for agricultural goods and services network, in various parts of the country, according to the company's Sustainability Study 2006.

The report, prepared by PriceWaterHouse Coopers, released here yesterday mentioned that ''the company's investments in creating rural infrastructure to support the flow of goods and services has being strengthened through the creation of these rural hubs.'' Already 10 "Choupal Saagars" are operational in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

''Nine more such rural hubs are in an advanced stage of construction. These hubs would serve as the core infrastructure to support ITC's rural distribution network,'' the report said.

ITC had set up "E-choupals", a platform which links the farmers to remunerative global markets and help in better price recovery of his products. When these platforms became popular among farmers, the company created 6000 e-choupals across the country and currently these hubs reach 3.5 million farmers in the states of MadhyaPradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, UP, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The aim of setting up e-choupal project was to leverage digital technology to transform rural sector and create improved supply chain. Apart from providing global market at the click of the mouse, e-choupals also deliver real-time information about farm produces, seeds, fertilisers and worldwide market price.

The total number of e-choupals have increased from 3298 in 2003-04 to around 6000 in 2005-6. It was 4959 in 2004-05. Around 36,000 farmers are under this project.

UNI