ITC To Increase FPOs To 4k In Next 4 Years Linking 1-Cr Farmers

Bhopal: ITC is expanding its network of FPOs, further aiming to connect one crore farmers in the next 4-5 years and scaling up sourcing of fruits and vegetables through this platform, said its Agri Business Division CEO S Ganesh.

ITC, present in around 22 states through FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations) and working on 20 crops, has plans to expand and deepen it further in states including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Bihar.

Besides, ITC is working on expanding the reach of its super app MAARS -- a ‘phygital’ initiative with FPOs through which it is providing personalised advisories to farmers from weather forecast to sales of crops at mandi prices, supply of seeds and fertiliser and services as soil testing to helping them get credit from banks.

Through MAARS (Metamarket for Advanced Agriculture Rural Services), ITC is also enhancing agricultural practices to small farmers through technology aggregation, AI-enabled solutions, AgTech and an e-marketplace for commodities and inputs. “This agri stack and the FPO collectivization is today, at about 1,600 and our ambition is to take it to 4,000 and 10 million farmers in next 4 to 5 years,”

Ganesh said.

ITC is now expanding these FPOs beyond the purchase of traditional crops such as wheat, paddy, maize, soya, chilli and cumins to green peas, mangoes, fruits and green vegetables through a cluster-based approach, he added. These FPOs, formed through the collectivisation of small and marginal farmers for handling agri-related activities, have now become a centre of economic activities in those regions and now ITC is trying to integrate them with the benefits of modern technology and science.

Here ITC’s endeavour, under its NexGen Agri vision, is to make small farmers aware of the probable impact of climate change on crop zones and durations, the need for soil rejuvenation, and the importance of crop rotation etc.

“They get the benefits of science, the better inputs in terms of seeds and various other inputs at all the crop stages, supported with an agri tech solutions MAARS,...” he said adding “now farmers are also realising that technology is benefiting them and their economic activity is increasing.”