ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri told the company’s annual general meeting on July 23, 2026 that its farm platform covers 2.6 million farmers in 11 states.
Peoples Feed checked that ITCMAARS farmers count against an earlier ITC statement. On May 21, 2026 the company reported about 2.3 million farmers and more than 2,100 farmer producer organisations on the same platform.
Puri put the goal at 10 million farmers by 2030. The count he reported to shareholders is 26% of that goal.
The benefit figures are the company’s own. “Initial estimates indicate crop yield gains of 15-20% and improvement in net returns by 25-30%,” the address says. It cites no independent audit.
Sanjiv Puri is the Chairman and Managing Director of ITC Limited, the company’s leadership page says. Puri joined ITC in January 1986 and became Chairman on May 13, 2019.
ITC published the address on its website as “ITC: Partnering India in its Defining Decade”. The agriculture publication Krishi Jagran reported it on August 19, 2026 and attributed it to Puri.
How the ITCMAARS Farmers Count Compares
One company platform now reports almost as many farmers as India’s flagship farmer collective scheme. That scheme is Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations.
It reached 10,000 registered organisations covering about 30 lakh farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said on February 28, 2025. About 40% of them are women.
The scheme carries a budget of Rs 6,865 crore to 2027-28. The number Puri gave, 2.6 million, sits just under that scheme’s 3 million.
The two counts measure different things. The government scheme forms and funds legal farmer companies. ITCMAARS signs farmers onto a digital sourcing and advisory platform.
Pace matters more than the total. Between May 21 and July 23, 2026, a gap of 63 days, the reported number rose by about 0.3 million.
Peoples Feed worked that out as roughly 1.7 million farmers a year. ITC needs 7.4 million more, which at that rate arrives in late 2030.
What Puri’s Other Farm Numbers Show
Puri gave four more programme counts in the same address. Climate Smart Agriculture covers nearly 32 lakh acres across 17 states and more than 12 lakh farmers.
The target there is 40 lakh acres by 2030. In rice and wheat the practices have cut costs by over 20% and raised yields by about 10%, Puri said.
Watershed projects are the second count. They span nearly 20 lakh acres, and around 90% of farmers in those catchments can grow a crop all year.
The third is the Social Investments Programme. Puri put its reach at 275 districts across 20 states and over 10 million people, of whom 6 million are women.
Money is the fourth measure. ITC’s agriculture business earned nearly Rs 20,300 crore in 2025-26, roughly double its level a little over five years earlier.
Gross revenue for the year to March 31, 2026 was Rs 80,867.49 crore, up 10.1%. That figure comes from the company’s results statement of May 21, 2026.
What this means for you: If you farm in one of the 11 states where ITCMAARS operates, that platform is the route by which ITC buys and advises. Ask your farmer producer organisation whether it is one of the 2,100 on the network before you rely on those yield figures.
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