India’s agri future needs more than tech, and ITCMAARS shows the path to scale

India’s agricultural sector is not just under stress, it’s structurally broken. Low productivity, fragmented supply chains, and systemic financial exclusion have long hindered rural prosperity. Add to this the existential pressures of climate volatility and resource degradation, and it’s clear: we’re past the point where pilot projects and information apps can make a difference.

This isn’t just a rural issue-it’s a national productivity crisis. And Indian enterprises can no longer afford to treat agriculture as a welfare sector.

ITCMAARS (ITC Metamarket for Advanced Agriculture and Rural Services) is a bold platform by ITC Ltd. that is reframing how India’s agricultural economy works. More importantly, it offers a playbook for any enterprise operating in complex, underserved markets. This isn’t about digital transformation. It’s about ecosystem transformation at scale.

Why most agri platforms fail, and why ITCMAARS could change the game

Digital agri solutions often fall into two traps: tech-first designs that ignore on-ground realities, and monolithic apps that can’t scale across India’s fragmented farming landscape. Most fail to gain trust or relevance beyond their initial pilots.

ITCMAARS breaks this cycle by embedding digital tools within trusted rural institutions like FPOs, while orchestrating an open, extensible ecosystem. This ‘phygital’ approach isn’t a gimmick; it’s a structural redesign of agri infrastructure. By integrating financial services, advisory, input supply, and market access into one interoperable platform, ITCMAARS enables both micro-level personalization and macro-level scalability.

This is the bigger lesson for enterprise leaders: platforms succeed not by owning the ecosystem but by enabling it. ITC isn’t trying to ‘win’ agri, it’s trying to make the ecosystem win. That’s the model to follow.

ITCMAARS brings a platform mindset to solve endemic agri issues

ITCMAARS represents a strategic evolution of ITC’s earlier e-Choupal initiative, reflecting the company’s continued commitment to digitally transforming Indian agriculture. While e-Choupal laid the foundation by providing farmers access to vital information, ITCMAARS builds on this legacy with a more integrated and scalable approach. It leverages two decades of grassroots experience to create a phygital ecosystem, blending on-ground presence (advisory services) with digital technologies (AI, IoT) layered over trusted institutions such as Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). ITCMAARS is both a farmer-centric and enterprise-ready solution.

ITCMAARS: Hyperlocal, crop-agnostic, and farmer-first platform

The ITCMAARS platform operates through an app in multiple Indian languages, connecting 2050+ FPOs across 11 states. Its core features include:

• A GenAI-powered voice assistant, ‘Krishi Mitra’, acts as an agri-copilot, helping farmers with their voice/text-based queries in vernacular languages with contextual and relevant information based on farmers’ profiles and ITC’s agri enterprise knowledge.
• AI-powered advisory services such as the ‘Crop Doctor’ for real-time pest identification, customized weather-based crop guidance, and a crop calendar for better farm planning.
• Input marketplaces for seeds, fertilizers, and pest management tools, backed by agronomic data to ensure right-time, right-quantity access.
• Financial inclusion tools such as Kisan Credit Cards, working capital loans for FPOs, and planned insurance offerings.
• Market access tools, including e-marketplaces and farm-gate procurement that bypass intermediaries and provide price transparency.
• Climate-smart practices enabled by satellite monitoring, drone-based fertilization, zero tillage methods, and bio/nano fertilizers.
• Community and learning modules for farmers to share insights, get expert advice, and strengthen FPO governance.

Aggregating demand, reducing input costs, and connecting directly to markets boost farm incomes. By providing timely and personalized advisories, it reduces yield losses and enhances productivity. Scientifically curated Krishi Samadhan Kits coupled with customized nutrition and real-time advisories can potentially enhance farmer incomes by 25-30% while reducing usage of chemical fertilisers. ITCMAARS has also enabled market linkage for wheat farmers for close to 1.5 million metric tons. It offers access to credit, insurance, and advanced technologies to build long-term resilience. With over 2.2 million farmers already onboarded and a goal of reaching 10 million farmers and 4,000 FPOs by 2030, ITCMAARS is poised to become a national agricultural operating system.

Recently, ITCMAARS, in collaboration with the Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee (GDPDC), an apex body under the Ministry of Science & Technology driving geospatial initiatives—launched a farm advisory pilot under Project Dronagiri to boost farmer incomes. As part of this initiative, it has implemented its AI/ML-powered, hyperlocal, customized crop advisory service across three blocks in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, covering wheat crops across 15 FPOs, 27,000 farmers, and 39,000+ acres. This independent assessment showed over 15% yield improvement on plots using the customized advisory versus traditional methods.

ITC, with its ITCMAARS, has built a partnership ecosystem that validates scalability and platform maturity

A commendable aspect of ITCMAARS is that it does not act alone. It has attracted an impressive range of partners, reflecting its platform maturity and credibility. Banking partners include the State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and IDFC First Bank, which help deliver financial services to the last mile. Input and crop protection companies such as Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, Corteva, and Coromandel contribute domain expertise and product pipelines. The platform also works with ICAR institutions and AgriTech startups that provide soil testing, drone services, and smart irrigation. This diverse coalition underscores the interoperability and extensibility of the MAARS platform, qualities essential for scaling impact in a sector as complex and fragmented as Indian agriculture.

The platform’s ‘plug and scale’ architecture deserves attention; it is a network play, not a closed-loop app. First, it demonstrates the power of phygital design, embedding digital platforms into trusted local infrastructures to ensure adoption and effectiveness. Second, it validates the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration; no single entity can transform Indian agriculture, but well-orchestrated platforms can. Third, it proves that data-driven personalization at scale is possible in rural India and essential for delivering real value to farmers.

The Bottom Line: For enterprise leaders, this is a wake-up call to go beyond point solutions and build platforms that are interoperable, adaptable, and embedded in local trust networks.

ITCMAARS shows us that building for inclusion and scale isn’t a trade-off; it’s a multiplier. This platform is not a digital CSR project or a glorified app; it’s a strategic infrastructure play that connects profitability with purpose, data with trust, and enterprise with ecosystem.