A vital component of ITC’s agri strategy is to promote Value-Added Agriculture to enable farmers scale the next horizon of profitable growth. This portfolio, which has grown at a CAGR of 33% over five years, today encompasses certified organic crops, processed agri-products, such as food-safe spices, horticulture, premium coffee, aquaculture and attribute-specific commodities, like high-starch maize and high-gluten wheat.
Taking this further, ITCMAARS will drive a Farming as a Service (FaaS) ecosystem to ‘Grow the Buy’, where crop value chains are customised to meet specific buyer needs. Certifications, traceability and responsible sourcing establish trust systems at scale, linking Indian farmers to domestic and global export markets. ITC’s Spices Business, for example, is today the country’s leading exporter of organic spices, supported by certified cultivation, backward integration and one of Asia’s largest spices processing facilities at Guntur.
In an era of climate stress and rising food-security imperatives, production of high-quality, resilient seeds and hybrids is vital to enhancing productivity, improving quality, increasing climate resilience, strengthening nutritional security and raising farmer incomes. ITC’s wholly owned subsidiary Technico, a global leader in pre-basic potato seeds, is investing in the world’s largest state-of-the-art aeroponic facility with 60 hi-tech controlled-environment greenhouses taking the combined capacity to 100 million TECHNITUBER®s.
Fostering an effective science-to-farm ecosystem, ITC’s LSTC is leveraging advanced breeding technologies, molecular genetics and digital tools to develop higher-yielding, climate-resilient, hybrid and disease-resistant varieties across crops such as tobacco, wheat, potato, eucalyptus and subabul. These have led to yields improving by 15-50%.
ITC is making appreciable progress in high-value, future-facing categories, such as Biological Extracts, with the commencement of a US FDA-compliant, export-oriented, pharmacopoeia-standard nicotine derivative processing facility, serving customers in Europe, USA and South Korea. In addition, ITC’s medicinal and aromatic plant ecosystem is developing high-active varieties and proprietary formulations, besides manufacturing high-purity extracts for domestic and global markets together with farmer training in best practices.
As we look ahead, ITC will continue to work towards shaping a more competitive, resilient and inclusive Agri-Business, which is not only creating new growth drivers but also contributing to enriching rural India, raising farmer incomes, fortifying food and livelihood security, and establishing globally trusted value chains.
