An official from ITC Limited said that it will spearhead the ITC MAARS super app to boost its agricultural business. According to ITC CMD, Sanjiv Puri who spoke at a virtual news conference, the super app will empower farmers by giving them access to modern tools, the right quality of inputs at the right prices, as well as market and financial links.
He stated that the app will aggregate farmers' fragmented land holdings, adding that the company has started with 200 farmers producer organisations (FPOs) involving 40,000 farmers.
"Our goal is to reach 4000 FPOs and 10 million farmers. Farmers can sell their produce to FPOs, mandis, or buyers such as ITC," he explained.
Puri believes MAARS can help ITC scale up its mega brand Aashirvaad while also transforming the farming community.
He stated that the FMCG vertical is expected to grow to Rs five lakh crore by 2030. "In this segment, ITC will grow faster than the industry," he added.
In addition, the company is collaborating with farmers to develop robust models for value-added segments such as higher quality and organic chillies, mango pulp traceable to farms, fair trade specialty coffee, wheat flours, and medicinal and aromatic plant extracts.
ITC MAARS is a game-changing business model with a very creative monetization model that will be built on the foundation of e-Choupal 4.0. The e-Choupal is responsible for the physical aspects, such as the demonstration farms, the lead farmers, and the information highway that connects all of the players. "ITC MAARS will improve markets for advanced agriculture and rural services," as per Sanjiv Puri.
The company plans to invest Rs 300 crore in its personal care product manufacturing plant in Uluberia, West Bengal, and the ITC Infotech building in New Town will be completed by the end of the year. Puri stated that, for all practical purposes, the company had exited the lifestyle retailing business.
