Bayer CropScience has partnered with ITC to market its crop protection products to farmers through the latter's e-Choupal online platform.

The partnership has commenced as a pilot project in Mysore, Karnataka, and will gradually be expanded to other geographies across India, Bayer CropScience said in a statement.

With COVID-19 disrupting farming operations and on-farm advisory, this initiative will help farmers avail agri-inputs and digital advisory on a timely basis.

"ITC and Bayer are jointly training and on-boarding retailers in the Mysore region to cater to farmers' orders placed through the e-Choupal 4.0 platform. Field Officers from both companies have also received extensive training on product knowledge and technical advisory to support farmers," the statement said.

Over 42,000 ITC farmers, covering 60,000 hectares across 1,100 villages in Mysore region will benefit from the partnership with Bayer.

Farmers can place their order for Bayer products through the e-Choupal 4.0 platform and track their orders. Farmers without access to smartphones can place their orders online with assistance from field staff or even place offline orders.

D Narain, CEO & MD of Bayer CropScience, said, Farmers in India often struggle to get access to agri-inputs, training and advisory under one roof. Lack of modern technologies and good agricultural practices hamper crop productivity and farm profitability."

Bayer's partnership with ITC aims to offer tailored solutions, enabling farmers to achieve better harvests and progress to sustainable agriculture, he said.

"We also plan to leverage ITC's extensive rural reach to create capacity building for adoption of greater product stewardship and traceability of produce," Narain said.