Q1. What is the industry in which ‘Cheeni’ is operating?

Enumerate the key issues

faced  by this industry.
Ans: Cheeni is operating in Sugar Industry. Some of the challenges faced by this industry are
as follows-
1. Uncertain Production Output-The production of sugar varies from year to year which
in turn causes fluctuations in prices which leads to losses when there is excess
production due to low prices.
2. Low Yield of Sugarcane- The yield per hectare in India is extremely low in
comparison to major sugarcane producing.
3. Short crushing season- The production of sugar is a seasonal industry which varies
from 4 to 7 months in a year. This leads to seasonal employment for workers and lack
of complete utilization of sugar mills.
4. Low sugar recovery rate- The average rate of recovery of sugar from sugarcane is
comparatively lower than other sugar producing countries.
5. Government policy and control-The sugar prices are being controlled through several
government policies- export duty, stock limit on sugar mills, etc. These controls have
resulted in little or no profit for these sugar mills and increased the dues to be paid to
the sugarcane farmers.
Q2. Discuss how ‘Cheeni’ works with farmers in terms of supplying plants, monitoring,
financial support, and other initiatives. What is the role of cane field staff (CFS)?

For Cheeni, yield and Quality of sugarcane are important parameters; therefore, they keep in
proximity with farmers.
1. To maintain a close relationship with farmers, they provide plants from their nursery
to the farmers during sowing. Also, advise them on nutrition requirements for soil and
crop, pesticides required for sugarcane crop, etc.
2. Sugarcane typically takes 10-14 months period from sowing to ripening. Cheeni also
monitors crops during the period through its mechanism called-“doc format,” where
the company representative visits the field every three months (approx. 4 times in
total)and evaluates the growth of the crop, sugarcane quality, presence of disease, etc.
Post that, they prepare a document and give advisory to farmers.
3. Financial support to farmers is provided based on the progress of the crop. Instead of
providing one-time payment to farmers, they provide part payment to keep sufficient
working capital with themselves and keep liquidity in the hand of farmers to meet the
need of crops and their own families.
4. Some new initiatives are also started by Cheeni like weather updates, yield
improvement activities, providing mechanical harvesters on-demand and scheduling
of cutting for various farmers, etc.

CFS provided with monitoring and recording the various aspects related to cane growth, input
provision, disease control, financial support, etc. CFS were also involved in coordinating the
procurement of sugarcane from the growers. CFS had knowledge of rural India and also
developed close relationships with farmers and their community. They also were one-stop
shop for information relating to various needs of the farmers themselves. CFS also kept a
close track of cane growth in the various farms under their supervision. CFS were also
provided with PDAs that made transfer and retrieval of information more efficient and time
consuming. Apart from this CFS monitored and recorded cane growth information and field
updates. They also had information from the Web CMS against the farmer's identity.
Information such as availability of cane sets at nursery for planting, availability of fertilizers
and pesticides stock, past payments made to the farmer by Cheeni, loan outstanding against
the farmer, cane crushed and recovery details at the factory site, etc. are also available to the
CFS to be provided to the farmer on request. Hence, CFS acted as a support system for the
farmer community and increased the overall efficiency of process.

Q3. Why did ‘Cheeni’ experience the need for an innovative IT application? Where did
the idea for IT intervention emerges? Can an organization rely on this mode of
planning for sustaining IT innovations?

So, first, let's take a look at their existing procedure. The Cane Field Staff (CFS) is required
to check the development of the cane growth every three months. When the field visits the
farm, a "doc" is generated. They usually came every three, six, nine, or twelve months. These
documents are used to provide advice to farmers. The difficulty with manual recording is that
the CFS encompassed a wide range of geographies and farms. This made the work more
difficult and resulted in time wasted while looking for information.
As the CFS is responsible for monitoring and recording many areas of data such as input
provision, illness control, financial assistance, and so on. Cheeni saw a need for an unique IT
solution to maintain track of the vast volume of data gathered in the field from over a
hundred thousand farmers spread across hundreds of communities.
As a result, the farms and factories must be linked, and the factory must be informed of
harvest periods in order to minimise scheduling conflicts among numerous cane growers. As
a result, several manufacturers have already begun to rely on information technology to
construct cane supply calendars, issue supply tickets to farmers, pay farmers via bank
linkages, and maintain cane grower data.
As a result, cooperative society factories in certain states have already begun to make
extensive use of information technology to assist in the preparation of cane supply calendars,
the issuance of supply tickets to farmers, payment to farmers via bank linkages, and the
preservation of farmers' records.

Q4. What are the IT related components introduced in ‘Cheeni’? Explain the role of
these. IT innovations in addressing the issues faced by farmers and other stakeholders.
Ans: Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): devices that are pre-loaded with an appropriate IT
application for capturing the required data. In partnership with the CFS, the firm's IT
department built and developed a platform that gave them the requisite mobility and precision
in data collecting. This programme provided access to a web-based cane management system
(CMS). The application allowed the CFS to retrieve information from the Web CMS against
the farmer's identity, as well as monitor and record cane growth information and field
updates. The CFS has access to information such as the availability of cane sets at the nursery
for planting, fertiliser and pesticide stock, previous Cheeni payments to the farmer, loans
owed to the farmer, cane crushed and recovery details at the factory site, and so on. The
CFS's rapid adoption of PDAs and use of the tool resulted in a significant reduction in the
amount of time it took to provide information to farmers. Furthermore, because of the
mobility enabled by PDAs, the CFS was able to deliver the information required by the
farmer on the farm rather than requiring the farmer to attend the section office.