Tata Chemicals launches Tata Kisan Sansar
Continuing in its endeavour to bring prosperity into the
lives of farmers, Tata Chemicals Limited today announced the
launch of 'Tata Kisan Sansar', a chain of one-stop resource
centres. This unique initiative for farmers, the Tata Kisan
Sansar, will benefit farmers by offering end-to-end agri solutions
including the latest in agro services and specialised input
products. The service ranging from agro input planning to
crop procurement, will assist farmers in their decision making
process to increase their yield and align themselves to market
demands.
An upgraded set-up of the existing Tata Kisan Kendras, the
Tata Kisan Sansar (TKS) is a unique initiative that will benefit
farmers by enabling easy access to the latest techniques and
modern farming concepts, which otherwise is not easily accessible
to Indian farmers. Spanning three highly productive agricultural
states, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, TKS will provide
solutions to over 14,000 villages in Northern India in its
first phase.
The key benefits provided by TKS to a farmer include easy
access to the market and facilitate long term, low interest
credit by becoming a part of self-help group called Kisan
Sahyog Pariwars (KSP). Pilot projects of the KSP have already
been successfully rolled out in 256 villages. The company
has trained agronomists to directly interact with the farmers
for total agriculture related solutions. The company has over
130 highly skilled agronomists that constantly track and bring
the best agro-practises to the farmers in the three states.
Announcing the launch of TKS, Prasad Menon, Managing Director,
Tata Chemicals, said, "This developmental initiative
forms a part of the Tata Group philosophy of concentrating
on areas of national economic significance. It is the manifestation
of the group's belief that rural India can grow enormously,
given a little impetus from the private sector companies such
as Tata Chemicals. TKS will act as the business partner and
advisor to farmers by providing the entire range of agro services
to them. It will create a favourable environment (Sansar)
for the farmers, to help them increase their yield thereby
bringing prosperity in their lives. We have commenced our
initiative with 421 TKS spanning three agricultural dense
states of the North and we hope to expand our reach by 500
outlets by 2005."
With the objective to help the farmer increase his yield
through informed decision making, the company will be setting
up kiosks at all key locations to enable easy and real time
access to the information required by a farmer such as Mandi
prices amongst others. TKS centres will also be IT-enabled
and will track the profile of farmers visiting the centres.
Through this the company will improve its response time and
service the farmer more efficiently. Apart from this, TKS
will extend the output buyback service (contract farming)
that has already benefited farmers in 60 villages of UP and
Punjab. Besides this, TKS will continue to provide other farm
management solutions as well.
Establishing the genesis of TKS, Kapil Mehan, COO, Fertiliser
Business, Tata Chemicals, said, "While addressing the
agro input needs of farmers through our Tata Kisan Kendra's
(TKK), we realised that there is a huge requirement by farmers
for agriculture-related solutions across all areas. With TKS
we will offer end-to-end agro solutions through our resource
centres thereby adding value to farmers' lives. To create
a clear branding differentiation in TKS, a new logo is being
unveiled today and the entire look and feel of the resource
centres will be centred on this new identity. The new logo
will capture the essence of our offerings and convey the holistic
approach to this initiative."
To avail TKS services, a farmer can either become a member
of Tata Kisan Pariwar or pay selectively for the services.