The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is supporting promotion of four new Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) in Thanjavur district through the Producers Organizations Promoting Institutions (POPIs).
These FPOs would improve the bargaining power, net income, and quality of life of small and marginal farmers, according to the NABARD District Development Manager K. Subramanian.
He was here to review the field progress made by a POPI, the ICRISAT, near Papanasam in Thanjavur district.
The companies would be promoted at the block level with a minimum membership of 500 farmers. The ICRISAT has been sanctioned as POPI to promote a FPO in Papanasam block while the Dhan Foundation has been sanctioned three FPOs in Ammapettai, Thanjavur and Kumbakonam blocks.
There are various steps in promoting and nurturing a FPO in a block. A baseline survey of the potential clusters in a given geography (block) needed to be undertaken to establish the current situation and map the required interventions.
The interested farmers in the particular cluster would then be mobilised into an FPO in consultation with other stakeholders such as the State government departments, research institutions, and other agencies. The existing farmer clubs, self-help groups, and joint liability groups would be considered for organising them into FPOs.
Then, the members of the FPOs would elect their Board of Directors for running the company.
The NABARD would provide complete handholding support to the FPOs through POPI for its registration as a company.
The POPI would guide the FPO on the legal and administrative aspects of running a company, said Mr. Poo Murugesan, consultant, ICRISAT.
The Board of Directors of the FPO would be sensitised at least once in a year for three consecutive years on areas such as functioning of the FPOs, organisational structure, business operation and management, market links, legal aspects of FPO, regulatory compliance, good governance practices, transparency and accountability, vision building, leadership development, communication skills, and MIS.
These Farmer Producer Companies would be empowered to implement the seven-point strategy, recently announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to double the income of farmers in six years with measures to step up irrigation, provide better quality seeds and prevent post-harvest losses, Mr. Subramanian said.
