One of India’s largest private procurers of agricultural commodities, ITC is aiming to promote high value agricultural produce such fruits, vegetables, spices, rice, wheat and biological extracts to deepen its farmers connect. S Ganesh Kumar, divisional chief executive, agri- business division, ITC, which has reported revenue of Rs 13,661 crore in the first half of FY26, spoke to FE’s Sandip Das on issues associated with the company’s drive to boost smart agricultural practices through its engagement with Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) connected via its Meta Market for Advanced Agricultural Rural services (ITCMAARS).
Q: How have the company scaled up farmers connect using the digital platform?
We have progressively scaled up ITCMAARS, as pillar growth in agri-business. It has been expanded to include over 2180 FPOs and nearly 2.2 million farmers till date. The ’phygital’ (combination of physical and digital interventions) platform, with FPOs as the anchor, is enabling larger farmer empowerment. The platform provides crop advisories, awareness and knowledge sharing on use of the right inputs, modern farming technologies, and climate smart varieties, besides being an output-input market place for farmers.
The farmers’ collectives bring the power of collectivization and scale through aggregation of small farmers, leading to enhanced productivity, yields and farmer incomes. We are in the process of rolling out a scoring system for farmers to enable them to take informed decisions regarding realisation from value-added crops. We have also developed a calculator on the App to help farmers optimise use of fertilizers based on soil tests.
The platform is now operational in eleven states, operating in eight different languages, providing user flexibility for farmers. It is also a plug and play model that works as a solutions integrator with Agri-tech start- ups providing grassroot solutions to farming challenges. Currently, we are working with several partner institutions such as State Bank of India, IDFC First Bank, Axis Bank as well as seed and fertiliser majors such as Syngenta, Corteva Agrisciences and Bayer Crop Sciences, among others, who have been onboarded on the platform.
Q: ITC has been focussing on promoting smart agricultural practices?
As a part of our large-scale climate smart agriculture programme, we have been promoting a bouquet of practices right from climate resistant seed varieties, to reduced crop cycles, to multi-cropping (summer moong). Our focus has also been on introducing modern technologies and climate smart processes like heat resistant sprays as well as use of advanced agri mechanisation.
We have introduced over 50 climate smart crop varieties for crops like wheat, paddy and soya. The programme aimed at building resilience, covers over 3.1 million acres across 19 states so far. We are targeting to scale it up to 4 million acres by 2030. The stream of connected interventions promotes regenerative practices and nature-based solutions benefitting over 1.2 million farmers till date.
Q: What is your view on prevailing low food inflation and depressed prices of agricultural commodities?
All sectoral signals, including the three percent extra sowing (in the ongoing rabi season) indicate a very healthy crop potential. However, last year in February and beginning of March, the agri sector witnessed several instances of unseasonal rains, leading to damage of crop quality. While climate uncertainties will be a key monitorable, we are looking at a crop yield scenario that will be better than last year if everything else goes well.
For the moment, the country’s production of wheat beats consumption. While exports of wheat products have now been permitted, policy measures will be spearheaded by the Government to provide a further boost to agri-exports by including wheat as well going forward.
Q: What is your strategy to promote high value crop production and exports?
Our thrust is on some key strategic areas including scaling up the agri-commodity segment comprising quality grains, oilseeds amongst others. There is also development of value-added agri-products which includes spices, coffee, horticulture, aqua produce as well as development of maize varieties for higher productivity of ethanol processing.In the last five years, this portfolio has registered a 2x growth demonstrating immense potential.
To expand our spices business, we have recently set up Asia’s largest state-of-the-art spices processing global facility in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. This export-oriented facility supports modern farming value chains and advanced processing in alignment with global certifications, including European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)-ready compliance. The idea is to address emerging needs of consumers for organic, residue free, food safe spices.
We have also been catering to demand for different categories including clean labels and formats like flakes, powders and pastes. Shrimp is another business vertical for us. We have been leveraging digital technologies such as satellite imagery to map aqua ponds. ITCMAARS is also being used to develop the aqua value chain right from hatching to growing.
We are focussing on areas with enormous potential such as biological extracts from Ashwagandha, curcumin from turmeric etc, while creating market-linked value chains for such high-value crops. We are expanding the scope of ITCMAARS to usher in Next Generation agriculture. Currently, we procure around 4 million tonnes of agri produce annually, which includes 2.2 million tonnes of wheat. We source a range of agri-commodities to not only address internal requirements for ITC’s foods division, but to also serve global and domestic B2B customers.