PROMOTION OF FARMERS PRODUCER ORGANISATION (FPO) PROJECT (SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL NO. 1 “NO POVERTY”)
Promotion of Farmers Producer Organisation (FPO) Project (Sustainable Development Goal No. 1 “No Poverty” and Goal No. 8 "Decent Work and Economic Growth")
A Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) is a legal entity formed by primary producers, viz. farmers, milk producers, fishermen, weavers, rural artisans, craftsmen. It can be a producer company, a cooperative society or any other legal entity, which provides a mechanism for collective action and for sharing profits/benefits arising therefrom among the members.
The main aim of a FPO is to ensure better incomes to its producer members from a business organisation that they own. Small producers universally lack the individual volumes both in terms of inputs needed by them and their marketable produce that would allow them to access the benefit of economies of scale. Besides, the long chain of intermediaries they encounter in their marketing, who most often work with non-transparency, leads to a scenario where the producer receives only a small part of the value that the ultimate consumer pays. Through aggregation made possible by setting up their own organisation, the primary producers can avail the economies of scale. In unison they will also command better bargaining power vis-à-vis the bulk buyers of produce and bulk suppliers of inputs.
The promotion of FPO contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal No. 1 “No Poverty” and Goal No. 8 "Decent Work and Economic Growth" as it helps in creating farmer owned enterprises and increasing incomes of the FPO members.
IFFDC is implementing 10 projects on Promotion of FPO in seven States i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra with financial support from NABARD and NCDC under the Central Sector Scheme of the Govt. of India for Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). The project duration is of five years from April 2021 to March 2026.
l All 50 FPO allotted to IFFDC have now been formed of which 27 FPO are registered under Cooperative Acts and 23 FPO under the Companies Act. Their total membership is 27,039 Farmers.
l 1,712 meetings on FPO awareness and 1,500 meetings of the Boards of Directors of FPO have been organised, in which 58,200 farmers participated.
l 45 FPO have received Equity Grants of Rs. 239.61 Lakh and 48 FPOs received Rs. 498.17 Lakh as 1st to 12th installment towards Management Cost.
l All 50 FPO have obtained PAN numbers, with 49 of them having obtained GST numbers, 47 FPO registering on the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal, 30 FPO obtaining Mandi Licenses and 40 FPO obtaining Fertiliser, Seed and Pesticide Licenses.
l 43 Farmer Producer Organisations have been registered on ONDC portal and 44 FPO have obtained FSSAI Licenses.
l 123 Training programmes of the Boards of Directors & Chief Executive Officers of these FPO and 113 Exposure Visits have taken place.
l So far, IFFDC has received grant of Rs. 524.60 Lakh towards CBBO Management Cost.
l During the Year, 41 Farmer Producer Organisations have undertaken the business of Agri-inputs i.e. Fertilisers, Seeds, Pesticides, Bio fertilisers and have achieved a total turnover of Rs. 11.21 Crore. Besides this, 39 FPO have undertaken Commodity Trading with a total turnover of Rs. 253.76 Crore.