Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and farmers' decision-making across the agricultural supply chain

Using a case study of the Indian Tobacco Company's (ITC) e-Choupal initiative, the paper empirically analyses the role of information delivery through information and communication technology (ICT) in enhancing decision-making capabilities of Indian farmers. Users of e-Choupal show significantly better decision-making aptitudes, as compared to non-users, on various agricultural practices across the agricultural supply chain. Further, socio-demographic background's of the users such as education levels, the social category they belong to, income level's, and landholding size also play a significant role in impacting decision-making aptitudes. The impact is particularly prominent in production planning and post-harvest and marketing related decisions. Policy implications of these findings are discussed. The study emphasizes the importance of designing ICT enabled information systems to suit the socio-demographic profile of the user groups. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.