Background

EID Parry (East India Distillers, a 212 year old company) is closely linked to the farming community through its Sugar Division, with 100,000 registered sugarcane growers, and its Farm Input Division, with about 300,000 end-users. EID Parry operates in three industry segments:

1. Producing and selling farm inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and seeds; 
2. Producing and selling sugar (produced from four sugar factories in Tamil Nadu); and
3. Producing and selling sanitary ware across the country.

EID Parry has partnered with N-Logue Communications Pvt Ltd to open telecentres, called ‘Parry’s corners’, of which are now 38, as well as 10 ‘Chiraag’ centres.

Objectives and Goals

• To disseminate market and commercial information among farmers.
• To educate farmers on the latest developments in agri-science and post-harvest technology.
• To provide access to farmers to the right markets (for both farm and non-farm produce) through affordable credit and transportation solutions.
• To assist farmers in raising their income three-fold in next five years.

Planning

In November 2000, EID Parry started two Parry’s Corners using CorDECT technology developed by Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala (and the TENET group) from IIT Chennai and marketed by N-Logue Communications Pvt Ltd. EID Parry is not the Local Service Provider (LSP) for N-Logue but has taken up 38 franchisees in 38 villages in and around Nellikuppam, where they have a 175 years-old sugar factory, in the Cadallore district of Tamil Nadu. They have developed content through in-house expertise in their Sugar and Farm Input Division and Corporate R&D Lab, and are working with the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University and its research stations, Tamil Nadu University for Veterinary and Animal Sciences, the National Horticulture Board, AMM Foundation and the Muruguppa Chettiar Research Centre. The content is in the local language (Tamil) and it includes a Cane Management System (CMS). These 38  Parry’s Corners have taken loans from the  Indian Bank and have entered into an agreement with EID Parry to provide an outlet to sell sugar, chocolates/candies, tea, fertilizers and to procure paddy for them. They use CorDECT technology for 36  Kbps wireless connectivity, for which EID Parry pays to N-Logue Communications Pvt Ltd a sum of Rs 650 per month per Parry’s Corner for unlimited use of connectivity. There are also 10 ‘Chiraag’ centres opened by private franchisees directly with N-Logue Communications Pvt Ltd for which they pay Rs 750 per month per centre for similar connectivity. All 38 Parry’s Corners and 10 Chiraag centres use the Chiraag software.

Services Provided

The following services are provided through 38 Parry’s Corners: a Cane Management System (CMS) which provides all factory and farmer information concerning sugarcane, including crushing details of sugarcane and payments payable to farmers. The software also provides local news, agriculture news, weather forecast, e-mail, information on cultivation and farming techniques of local crops, veterinary services. There is also a farmer’s calendar and farmer’s calculator. All these services are available to all the farmers at a user charge ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 10 per service. The software has exhaustive local databases of farmers concerning their land, crop patterns, commodity marketing, etc.

Parry’s Corners also collect soil samples for testing (at Rs 15 per sample) and sell seeds (Rs 1/kg commission), sugar (Rs 0.50/kg commission), tea (Rs 2/kg commission) and chocolates/candies (at variable commission). They also procure paddy from farmers (Rs 5/100 kg bag commission). Some services available on the Chiraag website are available at 10 Chiraag centres and at 38 Parry’s Corners. e-Governance services (called Min Arsu) are available, in which farmers access welfare schemes and download applications relating to revenue, industries, taluk and they can avail of services like birth and death certificates, registration for old age pension, water connection, change of name on property, etc. The Chiraag software also provides medical consultation with Arvind Eye Hospital (Pondicherry), ARR Hospital (Caddallore) and WebHealthCenter (a Chennai based health portal).

Patients can send an e-mail to the doctors along with photos (of eyes) taken with a webcam, with a filled in questionnaire and voice over attachment regarding the medical problem. Doctors provide their consultation based on this information. The services link to Agriweb, online tutorials for students, and computer games, job search, examination results, bus/train routes and timings, veterinary consultations, village information and Chiraag Radio are also available online. All these Chiraag services are available at a user charge varying from Rs 5-15. Computer training courses (Blue Book and Green Book courses for class I-V and class VI-X students) are also offered at these centres. A fee of Rs 300 is charged for a six-month course. All the centres have Internet browsing services and they host voice/video conferencing/chatting sessions (at a cost of Rs 25 per hour) as well.

Target Group and Intended Beneficiaries

The primary intended beneficiaries are farmers (mostly cultivating sugarcane and paddy) and villagers residing in 45 villages in the Nellikuppam area of Caddallore district of Tamil Nadu and three villages in Pondicherry. They can all access the services at the 38 Parry’s Corners and 10 Chiraag centers.

Institutional Arrangements

The project is headed by a Deputy Manager (IAL Operations) of EID Parry, who has an office in Chennai. The EID Parry server team has three Supervisors or Assistant Managers (one for paddy procurement, another for the daily update of website and hardware problems and a third for payments and sugar). There are four Field Officers, who monitor and provide logistical and strategic support to the Parry’s Corners. The N-Logue Communications Pvt Ltd team is headed by a Deputy Manager (Project), who sits in the server room in the Administrative Unit at Nellikuppam Sugar Factory. The support N-Logue team consists of two Technical Engineers (for survey, installation and customer complaints), one in charge for sales and one Marketing Manager. The project has developed partnerships with three health providers, Caddallore district administration, Agriculture University, Veterinary College and one private engineering college. All 48 centres/kiosks are manned by private entrepreneurs who have entered into a franchisee agreement with EID Parry or N-Logue. There are Farmers Clubs organized in all 38 Parry’s Corners and Kids Clubs instituted in all 10 Chiraag centers.

Technologies

The Server Room has one Dock Interface Unit (with 6 BUIC cards), two servers (a Master Internet Server and a Redundant Internet Server), and two Operation Monitoring Consoles. These are connected through modems and routers to six Compact Base Stations (installed on 95 metre high chimney/tower of the factory). There are two Repeater Base Stations (in Puddapate and Arasadikuppa villages). Satyam Info provides leased lines (64 kbps) linkage to CBS. There are two PIII PC’s with the Chiraag team and two PIII computers with the Agriline team in the server team. The server uses Windows NT and ASP and HTML for web based applications. SQL has been used for the database. CorDECT technology provides 35/70  Kbps connectivity (with simultaneous Internet and telephony) within an area of 25-30 km radius. The DIU in the Server Room can accommodate up to 20 BUIC Cards (and can support 1,000 subscribers). Presently, there are 87 subscribers (38 Parry’s Corners, 10 Chiraag centres, three educational institutions, three government connections, two solution providers, 11 factory connections and 13 private connections).

Primary Access Points

All the villagers residing in 45 villages (in Nellikuppam area of Caddallore district of Tamil Nadu) and three villages in Pondicherry can access these services at 38 Parry’s Corners and 10 Chiraag centres.

Capacity Building

All the kiosk operators (manning 38 Parry’s Corners and 10 Chiraag centres) have undergone one week’s training on hardware, server, and maintenance, Internet browsing and marketing. EID Parry has also trained 150 farmers to use the net and portal (especially to view their transaction record with the sugar factory).

Constraints and Implementation Challenges

The project faced implementation challenges with the community and technology. There has been lukewarm response from Village Councils. This has been compensated by excellent participation by farmers’ organizations and clubs. Commodity trading in sugar, tea, seeds, fertilizers, chocolates/candies still largely remains off-line. The Commodity Trading System (CTS) is still in the formative years. The installed capacity of 1,000 subscribers is not fully utilized. There were only 87 subscribers at the time of the study. The network is only used for data transmission, as voice transmission has not been finalized. Talks with Tata Infocomm are underway to use their OFC lines and setup to take up voice transmission as well. Hardly 10 percent of sugarcane farmers are using CMS. The CMS is making some headway, but its universal usage will take some time. Internet browsing is not very popular with the villagers. The network provides continuous and unlimited connectivity at Parry’s Corners and Chiraag centres. However, only a negligible proportion of the volume bandwidth is currently utilized.

Project Outcomes

The EID Parry and N-Logue partnership has grown exponentially over the three years prior to the study. The CMS has become popular with certain sections of sugarcane farmers. Health consultancy, especially related to eye ailments, has become quite popular. The Blue Book and Green Book courses for computer training for children (age group six to16 years) have been tremendously successful. The project is providing Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,500 per month income to kiosk operators from off-line and on-line activities.

Key Lessons Learnt

The successful partnership between EID Parry and N-Logue Telecommunications Pvt Ltd has shown that such partnerships between the business community and technology providers can result in sustainable and viable projects. The project also highlights that industries and businesses having a rural base would benefit by creating communication channels through community networks. The kiosks have to become not only information centres for the villages but should also become catalysts for the economic growth of the villages. How this can be attained can be learnt from the India Agriland Project. Numerous financial institutions, especially banks, are convinced about the economic feasibility of the project and are coming forward to provide term loans at low interest rates without collaterals and with a period of moratorium. The potential and opportunities offered by such networks could be tremendous and beneficial to the citizens and the project partners.

Sustainability

The project is sustainable as the partnership is mutually beneficial to the business house and the technology provider. All the Parry’s Corners and Chiraag centres have been repaying the bank loan instalments regularly and depositing the monthly connectivity charges regularly with N-Logue. Most of Parry’s Corners are earning sufficient net income every month, to make the operations financially viable. The earnings at Chiraag centres have still to be built up over a period of time. The long-term sustainability of the project would finally depend upon increasing the numbers of CorDECT subscribers from 87 to 1,000, starting with vocal transmissions, using all of the available bandwidth at the kiosks and putting Commodity Trading Systems online.

Replication and Scaling Up

The project has not been replicated in other parts of India. Warana Wired Village Project has recently adopted CorDECT technology. N-Logue has entered into agreements in Tamil Nadu with numerous private entrepreneurs as Local Service Providers in Alagumalai (Koimbatore), Teni (Teni), Thiruvallur (Thiruvallur), Thirupattur (Siv Ganga). EID Parry plans to replicate the project in three other sugar factories in the state of Tamil Nadu. EID Parry wants to scale up the services by introducing the Commodity Trading System. The plan is to scale up the project to increase the number of Parry’s Corners to 100.

Recommendations

There are only 87 subscribers of the CorDECT technology against the installed capacity of 1,000. It is necessary to attain at least 80 percent of the installed capacity by an intensive drive to register new customers in rural areas and by making strategic partnerships with LSPs. The technology offers unlimited access to 35  Kbps bandwidth to all these kiosks, but hardly 2 percent of the available bandwidth is presently being used. It is advisable to create content and services which motivate villagers to browse the Web more often. The use of voice transmission over the WiLL network needs to be sorted out at the earliest. The content on the Chiraag centres mostly revolve around video-conferencing, for which the need in the villages is almost negligible. It is recommended that e-education (including distance learning), e-governance and e-business services be provided. Content development is an area wherein efforts are still required. There is an urgent need to develop new partnerships with schools, colleges, universities, health centres and hospitals, local/regional/national employment providers, various tiers of local bodies, various departments of the government, etc.

Human Interest Stories

Kids and their New Play Field

Samundeeswari is the 12 years old daughter of a bullock cart driver from Valapet village. She studies in class VI in the nearby municipal school. Her father earns a meagre sum of Rs 1,500 per month. A few years ago she saw computers for the first time in a clothes shop. She asked many questions about the machine, but her parents could not provide any satisfactory answer. Then, she came to know about Thirukandeswaram Chiraag centre. She motivated  her father to pay Rs 100 for the Green Book Course at the centre. Now she visits the centres with her six school mates. She wants to own her own e-mail account by the end of the course.

A One-stop Shop for Sugarcane Farmers

Priya is 22 years old and has completed MCom and DCA courses. She started a Parry’s Corner in her house in Malaigimedu village in November,2000 in partnership with her brother. The rural Post Office is located in another room of her house. She has one Pentium III computer, a web camera, multimedia kit, and 4-in-1 (printer, scanner, fax, and copier). She also sells sugar, tea, seeds and candies for EID Parry on a commission basis. She procures paddy from farmers for the company. She has done video-conferencing with the District Collector and with the Arvind Eye Hospital for the benefit of the villagers. She earns Rs 3,000 per month for the family. She says, “Money is no criterion. People are ready to pay for services. They only approach the kiosk based on their needs.”

Contact Information

1. Deputy Manager, IAL Operations, Murugappa Group, Dare House, Chennai
2. CEO, N-Logue, 5th Floor, Gokul Arcade 2, SP Road, Adyar, Chennai
3. Deputy Manager (Projects), 4th Floor, Administrative Unit, EID Parry (India) Ltd, Nellikuppam, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu
Tel: +91 44 2445 5212, 2445 5211, +91 41 4227 2334
Fax: +91 44 2445 5335, +91 41 4227 2242
E-mails: ponnapa@n-logue.com, sudhakar.s@n-logue.com, raghunandank@murugappa.co.in

Websites

http://www.indiagriline.com

http://www.tnnel.chiraag.com

http://www.n-logue.co.in