ICAR Institutes, KVKs to expedite the setting-up of Farmers Producers Organizations

NEW DELHI, 9 March 2021: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s Institutions (ICAR) along with the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) jointly organized a Webshop to discuss about the strategies for speeding-up and  setting-up of Farmers’ Producers’ Organizations (FPOs) in 116 blocks in the country under the recently launched Central Scheme.

In his address, Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare termed the ICAR and NCDC’s move to involve KVKs as Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) as commendable.

The Minister highlighted the launching of the Central Scheme by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi last year that aims to bring small and marginal farmers into production value-chains and help them boost their income.

KVKs play a significant role in providing technical guidance and reaching out to the farmers living in far off regions in the country. Her also stated that the  CBBOs will be the platform for an end-to-end support system for different issues in FPO cooperative business helping the farmers get various support and be the game changer in bringing about economic prosperity, the Minister emphasized.

In his address, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) underlined the challenges and opportunities of forming the FPOs and said that it was not only important to set-up the farmers’ entity, but also make them sustainable in the long run.

Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension), ICAR stressed that the FPOs will ensure the small farmers with multiple benefits from ‘farm to market’ within a legal framework to resolve their problems.

Regarding the Scheme as revolutionary, Sundeep Nayak, Managing Director, NCDC highlighted the massive response received from the farmers and outlined the use of a well-structured backbone of the ICAR which will help to meet the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat through FPOs under the Cooperative Societies Act.

The main objective is to use a vast network backed-up by the ICAR and KVKs’ technology and scientific knowledge. Presently, out of a total of 717 KVKs having huge spread across the country, 468 are under the State Agricultural Universities, 65 under the ICAR and 22 under the Central Agricultural Universities in the country.

The Government has kept a total budgetary provision of INR  4496 crores for 5 Years with a further committed liability of INR 2369 crores for the next 5 years towards handholding of each FPO from its aggregation and formation under the Central Sector Scheme for “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs.

Image credit: tribuneindia.com