Indian retail sector has introduced e-Choupal to empower farmers of India. e-Choupal, where farmers can access Internet for agricultural information.
The e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of information and an e-commerce hub. e-choupal has also established a low-cost fulfillment system focused on the needs of rural India, which helps in mitigating rural isolation, create more transparency for farmers, and improve their productivity and incomes. A local farmer works as a sanchalak (coordinator) runs the village e-Choupal, and the computer usually is located in the sanchalak's home. ITC has also incorporated a local commission agent, known as the samyojak (collaborator), into the system as the provider of logistical support. The company is expecting that each e-Choupal will serve around 10 villages within a five-kilometer radius. The first goal of the e-Choupal is to deliver real-time information and secondly, farmers can directly sell their crops without any help of an agent.
