FPOS IN GOVT SPOTLIGHT

Framing a policy for these organisations is just the first step towards making them economically viable, and much needs to be done to empower them, say experts

- SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Agriculture uploaded on its website a draft policy on Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), which, among other things, calls for a special subset within the primary sector lending norms of banks to make lending to FPOs easier, a scheme to incentivise hiring of talent in FPOs, and encouragement for farmer groups to establish agribusiness marketplaces acting as deemed mandis under state APMC laws.

Importantly, the draft suggests a three-tier institutional architecture for FPOs modelled on the lines of the highly successful "AMUL".

It also calls for targeted development of primary-level FPOs in each of the 7,256 blocks of the country over the next five years, benefiting approximately 25 million crore farmers out of the total 126 million small and marginal peasants.

According to some reports, the country has over 24,000 functional FPOs established under the Companies Act as of March 31, 2023, with many of them set up in recent years under the Central scheme to promote and form 10,000 FPOs.

Furthermore, the draft policy recommends a comprehensive assessment of FPOs formed under any scheme, and emphasises the importance of engagement with ministries and departments concerned to streamline their incorporation process.

However, experts said that framing a policy is just the first step towards making FPOs economically viable entities, and much more needs to be done to empower them and through them the farmers.

"The draft policy in itself is in the right direction and it rightly tries to guide on several pressing issues of FPOs, but it is only a draft and we need to see what the final version will be," says Anish Kumar, who is involved with the National Association of FarmerProducer Organisations (NAFPO).

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