EID PARRY: Indiagriline
More than a Corner Space

EID Parry's experiment with technology in rural Tamil Nadu focuses on 271 villages around its Nellikuppam sugar factory near Cuddalore. Parry has tried to build a community of "Parry farmers" through an IT initiative called Indiagriline. It provides advisory services, finance facilities and other occupational information through village information kiosks called Parry Corners. There are 29 Parry Corners, but the model is being revised. On farmers' response, the company is transforming its current general purpose model into a sugar-focused one. The company has been approached by financial services companies who are willing to be partners in the channel.

RELIANCE: Relicare
Harvest of Healthy Crop

For Ambanis, promoters of India's largest private company, the route to rural India is through medicinal and herbal plants (MAP). Reliance Lifesciences, set up in January 2001 as a biotech venture with a $5 million investment, has developed a 200-acre herbal garden in Navsari, Gujarat, where it grows plants such as ashwagandha, aloe vera, patchouli, geranium and lemon grass. It plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore and already has many MAP brands in the market under the name Relicare. The company is betting on the potentially large applications of map in pharmaceutical and alternative health therapies-both in India and abroad.

BHARTI: FieldFresh Foods
A Share in the Food Basket

PICTURE SPEAK

"India can replicate the success of the IT outsourcing in agribusiness and transform itself into the world's preferred food basket." SUNIL MITTAL, CHAIRMAN, BHARTI GROUP

In September this year, Sunil Mittal, who rules much of India's mobile airwaves, formed a 50:50 joint venture with de Rothschilds of Europe to set up a $50 million (Rs 225 crore) FieldFresh Foods. The company will export fresh fruits and vegetables to Europe, southeast Asia, Middle East and CIS countries. FieldFresh Foods will take the contract farming route and claims it will provide the best of farming practices and technologies to farmers. It will source its produces from Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. The investments will include an agriculture research centre and model farm in Punjab which will help spread the latest farming practices and technologies. The first shipment will take place in 2005. Says Mittal: "India has the potential to become the world's preferred food basket." He thinks India can replicate the success of it in agribusiness.

PICTURE SPEAK

"Our prosperity depends on the prosperity of farmers." AJAY SHRIRAM, CHAIRMAN, DCM SHRIRAM CONSOLIDATED

DSCL: Hariyali Kisan Bazar
Much in Store for Farmers

DCM Shriram Consolidated used its experience in the sugar and seed business to set up 11 Hariyali Kisan Bazars or rural malls in four states, with the first one in western Uttar Pradesh. The malls-six acres large-cater to farmers' needs by storing some 400 categories of products like stock feeds, seeds, fertilisers, veterinary medicines and farm implements. They are managed by agronomists who assist the farmers with technical know-how for free. The idea is to build a relationship with farmers and enhance their productivity.

CFCL: Uttam Bandhan
The Economics of Welfare

PICTURE SPEAK

"Our prosperity depends on the prosperity of farmers." AJAY SHRIRAM, CHAIRMAN, DCM SHRIRAM CONSOLIDATED

In 2000, the K.K. Birla Group's flagship company Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (CFCL) launched a community welfare initiative called Uttam Bandhan in Rajasthan, the state where the company has its urea plant. Under the programme, the company trains unemployed local youth as extension workers, known as Uttam Krishi Sewaks, who interact with farmers and advise them. Uttam Bandhan also manages an Internet website www.uttamkrishi.com which provides information on weather, cropping techniques and markets.

In 2002 the company entered the food processing business by taking over a unit in Haryana. The unit processes and freezes fresh vegetables and markets them under the Ever Fresh brand. Says H.S. Bawa, vice-president and CEO, CFCL: "We hope to take the community welfare initiative forward by touching more facets of farmers' lives."

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