Farmer Producers’ Organizations (FPOs): Status, Issues & Suggested Policy Reforms 1.0 Background Agriculture in India is predominantly production oriented confined in large number of fragmented small holdings and plays a pivotal role in the Indian economy. It provides employment to around 56 per cent of the Indian workforce, contributes to overall growth of the economy and reduces poverty by providing employment and food security to the majority of the population. However, due to highly fragmented, scattered and heterogeneous landholding, rising cost of cultivation and limited access of small/marginal farmers (SF/MF) to public resources and markets, the small holding based agriculture has gradually become unviable. The limited production quantities, lack of farmers’ access to public resources, quality inputs, credit facility, modern technologies, etc. and frequent crop failures, lack of assured market, income safety and poorly developed supply chain, has resulted in high dependency of farmers on the exploitative intermediaries and local money lenders. Small and marginal farmers constitute around 85% of the total land holding and hold around 44% of the land under cultivation. Some of the key concerns relating to small farm holders include: ▪ Inadequate farming and extension services and low level of technology adoption ▪ Lack of capital and poor business skills ▪ Low income due to poor infrastructure and low market efficiency The above situation calls for major structural reforms and transformational initiatives towards the revitalisation of Indian agriculture both, by way of stepping up rolex replica investments for productivity enhancement as also reforms in agricultural marketing and post-harvest agri logistics for boosting agricultural growth. In this context, a sustainable solution lies in collectivisation of agricultural produce and value addition/ marketing by achieving the economy of scale and creating commodity-specific agri value chains with participation of agri entrepreneurs and primary producers on the equitable terms. | Download Documents to Know More About Farmer Producers’ Organizations (FPOs)
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