The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India, in association with Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), organised a one-day National Workshop on Formation and Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), here today. In his Presiding address, Secretary, Sh. Manoj Ahuja spoke of the important role played by the leadership and clear vision in establishing and achieving the aspiration of supporting marginal farmers and development of the entire value chain should be the goal of FPO rather than just production.

In his address, Sh. Kidwai stressed on the need for monitoring by IAs of CBBOs, sensitisation of government functionaries; facilitation by Govt agencies in getting licensesand bank finance for FPOs.

The technical sessions of the workshop were flagged off by AS and MD (SFAC) wherein the status of the scheme and the roadmap for major indicators were shared. The technical sessions were on the following themes:

• Mrs B Sivarani of Salem Veerapandi Vattara Kalanjiam and Ashish Naphade of Krushi Vikas VaGramin Prashikshan Sanstha shared the experiences of successfully mobilising farmers, which could be replicated by other CBBOs.
• To enable market linkages, presentation on ONDC was also made and successful integration of more than 900 FPOs were presented. Signcatch presented the B2B linkages for FPOs which could be replicated by other FPOs. Aland Bhootai Millets Farmers Producer Company, ORMAS and KoriyaAgro Producer Company also described successful market linkages of FPOs
• Satmile Satish Club O Pathagar and DVARA E-Registry shared some innovative instances of local value addition by FPOs.
• Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation (TRIFED) presented their schemes and experience of promoting tribal FPOs and carrying out market linkage
• NABSANRAKSHAN, the subsidiary of NABARD, presented details of credit guarantee scheme and some successful examples of FPOs availing guarantee under the scheme

The National Workshop was presided over by Secretary (Agriculture), GoI, Sh. Manoj Ahuja. The Additional Secretary, MoA&FW, Sh. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai and Additional Secretary and Managing Director, SFAC, Dr Maninder Kaur Dwivedi addressed the participants.Over 100 participants, including Secretaries, Commissioners and Directors (Agriculture) from 17 states and UTs; and 15 Project Implementing Agencies (agencies of the Central and State Governments) of the Scheme were present in the workshop.

The workshop ended with an open session, where key operational aspects of the scheme were discussed. As a part of the discussion, the participants appreciated the initiative of sharing information and examples to ensure cross learning across all the entities.

Background:

The National Workshop was organised under the Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations. This Central Sector Scheme with an outlay of Rs 6,865 crore, was started in 2020 by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India to substantially increase farmer incomes.The scheme is designed to primarily benefit the small & marginal farmers who constitute more than 86% of the famer base.The scheme focuses on forming farmer collectives (FPOs) to facilitate economies of scale and scope for the small & marginal farmers across the value chain thereby reducing the cost of production and increasing their revenue. Further, the scheme envisages providing credit guarantee for loans taken by FPOs for various business activities. A total of 6,319 FPOs have already been registered under the scheme till date.

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SS