The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a cooperatives focused organisation under the Union Agriculture Ministry has roped in ICAR’s Institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in 116 blocks for formation and promotion of Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) in the country under a central scheme, says a press release issued by NCDC.
Of the total 717 KVKs which have spread across India, 468 are under the administrative control of state agricultural universities, 65 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and 22 under central agricultural universities in the country.
As per the NCDC, ICAR Institutes and KVK’s in 116 blocks will work as Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) under the Central Scheme which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year with an aim to bring small and marginal farmers into production value chains and help them boost their income.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Parshottam Rupala at a virtual orientation workshop organised by the NCDC, on Friday said that “NCDC’s move to involve KVKs as CBBOs is commendable. CBBOs will be the platform for an end to end support system for different issues in FPO cooperative business helping farmers get various support, and be the game changer in bringing about economic prosperity.
“KVKs play a significant role in providing technical guidance and reaching out to the farmers living in far off regions in the country”, Rupala said adding that, “I am sure that under the central scheme, the members of the FPOs will be able to get quality inputs like seed, fertilizer, pesticides and such other inputs at reasonably lower rates.
He also pointed out that the FPOs can set up need-based production and post-production machinery and equipment like cultivator, tiller, sprinkler set, combine harvester and such other machinery and equipment on custom hiring basis for members to reduce the per unit production cost.
Calling the scheme as a revolutionary scheme, NCDC MD Sundeep Nayak said that “we are getting massive response from the farmers. Under this we will be using a well structured backbone of the ICAR which will help us meet the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat achieved through FPOs under the Cooperative Societies Act.”
For the current fiscal year 2020-21, NCDC has been given a target for formation and promotion of 529 FPOs in 103 districts where one district one product’’ policy is being implemented.
The workshop which was attended by representatives from the ICAR Institutes and KVKs from across the country, aimed to make stakeholders aware of the scheme and of role and responsibilities of CBBOs. The workshop was also attended by senior officials from ICAR besides NCDC.
Dr T Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE) and DG ICAR talked about the challenges and opportunities of formation of the FPOs as he said it was not only important to set up the farmers’ entities but also make them sustainable in the long run.
Dr AK Singh, DDG ICAR while addressing the event, said that as small farmers have lots of problems at the ground level, FPOs will ensure them multiple benefits from farm to market’ within a legal framework. Under the Central Sector Scheme “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” the Government has kept a total budgetary provision of Rs. 4496.00 crore for five years with a further committed liability of Rs. 2369.00 crore for next five years towards handholding of each FPO from its aggregation and formation.