The Hindu Business Line : ITC’s agri-inputs biz to focus on exports

ITC Ltd is planning to take its two-year-old agri-inputs initiative programme to the next level, with a thrust on export of new organic inputs to developing countries.

The initiative is overseen by the company’s Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Division, which has now shifted focus to eco-friendly agri inputs across the growing cycle of different crops, under three different brands of ‘Wllgro’, ‘Wellpro and ‘Wellsto’.

The programme has now been extended to seven States under the company’s CSR programme of ‘Mission Sunehra Kal’, carried out in association with NGOs and SHGs.

This is also expected to obviate the risks associated with the stern mandate by the Union Health Ministry to switch to an alternative crop, or to gradually decrease the area under tobacco and help farmers switch to other viable commercial crops in a phased manner.

Talking to Business Line in Mysore recently on ILTD’s agri-inputs blueprint for the future, Mr S. Janardhan Reddy, CEO of ILTD, said according to overall estimates, some 80 per cent of future increases in crop production will have to come from intensification (higher yields), increased multiple cropping and shorter fallow periods.

This calls for improved inputs, technologies and the way the inputs are being used.

He said ITC was the owner of the products and brands under which these were marketed and manufacturing was exclusively outsourced to small scale industries in a bid to help in rural capacity-building and employment generation.

Giving an overview of the total organic inputs markets (said to be around Rs 1400 crore in size) scenario in the country today (when most of the products are imported), he said ILTD’s new initiative, backed by strong R&D, was aimed at indigenously developing differentiated, new products suitable for Indian agro-climatic conditions and cropping pattern.

He said the division’s ongoing product development exercise was split into two stages — R&D and Concept.

He said ITC’s Corporate R&D Centre was already engaged in screening and developing new age molecules to strengthen the product portfolio and offer eco-friendly inputs to farmers.

Asked on the marketing aspect, Mr Reddy clarified that the focus now was on geographies with crops of higher and quality input usage, with a thrust on back-end support to crops being dealt with by internal businesses.

Suggesting that the need of the hour was not only food security but also food safety, Mr Reddy suggested that the biggest challenge was to improve productivity levels (vertical growth), since there was little scope now for horizontal expansion (as nearly 9 per cent of the suitable arable land was already under cultivation).

Citing depleting soil fertility and health as a major area of concern, he said bulk of the nutrients applied today were lost in the form of leaching, fixation in the soil, and were not available to the plant.

He said the company’s agri input initiatives were further strengthened by the progressive Karnataka tobacco farmers in the HD Kote area of who were willing to give alternative crops like ragi, maize or cotton a try if returns from tobacco are made to shrink.

Mr Reddy said ILTD was also exploring the export markets for new age molecules or inputs in developing countries apart from institutional sales — “partnering with government agencies and private institutions involved in contract farming and promotion of eco-friendly agri inputs”.

Related Stories:
ITC’s leaf tobacco arm launches 5-year expansion plan
ITC to promote millet cultivation thru choupals
ITC welcomes spur to agri infrastructure development

More Stories on : Outlook | Commodities | Exports & Imports | I T C Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page