Agricultural Transformation MILITC AGAR

Source: ITCMAARS

• The largest programs in alignment with Indian farmers’ livelihoods have been designed and put to action by ITC.
• The agribusiness of the company has been changing from the supply and commodity based chains to demand-responsive value chains, while also progressing towards climate-smart agriculture.
• ITC launches Metamarket for Advanced Agriculture and Rural Services or ITCMAARS for offering innovative agri solutions.
• Phygital environment – crop-agnostic hyperlocal services for rich farm income and climate change practices.
• It provides ITC’s Agri and Foods Businesses with traceable high-quality agri sourcing.

ITCMAARS ‘Phygital’ Blueprint

• The physical interface of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) is the core of it.
• It provides connectivity to super app-enabled digital technologies for farmers.
• The one-stop source for farmers in personalized agricultural services.
• Is built to set a framework for AgTech startups to Plug and Scale.

FPOs as the Core Building Block

• Brings active farm livelihood opportunities due to aggregation efficiencies and gives targeted agricultural input delivery.
• Acts as a bridge between the market and the farmer, especially a small and marginal landholding farmer.

Features of ITCMAARS

• Customized Crop and Weather Advisory: Real-time advice regarding crops and weather through mobile apps, call centers, and field teams.
• ‘Crop Doctor’: Feature of AI-enabled Image Analytics for real-time identification of pests and consulting with experts.
• ‘Crop Calendar’: Notification-based and crop-specific periodic advisory system that helps systematically plan farming activities.
• ‘Customised Nutrition’: Recommendations of crop nutrition at the farmer level to boost crop yields and quality.
• Climate Smart Technologies and Sustainable Farming: Enabling farming that produces crops sustainably with less carbon emissions and improved productivity of farms.
• Partnerships supporting the uptake of emerging technologies: Would site specific nutrient management, crop health monitoring, fertilization with drone technology, and precision farming using IoT devices.
• ‘Krishi Mitra’ AI Chatbot: Developed jointly with Microsoft, this has a voice-and regional-language-based personalization feature.
• E-Market for Purchase of Inputs: Provides improved and pest management-backed inputs through advice towards increased productivity.
• Agri Credit Facilities: Facilitate Kisan Credit Card and input loans for farmers and a preapproved working capital loan for FPOs.
• E-Platform for Sale: Provides marketeer access to farmers by making price information open and transparent.
• Capacity Building: Ensures that proper training and dissemination of information on climate change impacts and appropriate farm interventions.
• Community Platform: Share best farming practices, expert advice and address several issues from farmers.

Scale and Reach:

In 10 Indian states, ITCMAARS has made over 1.5 million farmers’ lives better via more than 1650 FPOs. The app consists of value chains in wheat, soybean, and millets. It is supported by banking partners, crop nutrition and protection majors, and multiple ICAR Agri Institutes. By the year 2030, ITCMAARS aims to cover around 4,000 FPOs and empower 10 million farmers.