Govt plans to set up 3,500 FPOs in 3 years

The government is looking to create 3,500 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) in next three years with the intention to boost the income of farmers. Farmer producer organisations are formed by a group of farm producers to take care of their business activities. It is believed that FPOs will acquire a larger role now as the government has allowed agriculture trading outside APMC premises.

“FPOs can trade directly with corporates, large processors and millers from farm gate for getting maximum value for the produce. It will remove all the intermediaries and execute tax-free trading,” said Neel Kamal Darbari, managing director of Small Farmer Agribusiness Consortium, the government’s nodal agency for promoting FPOs.

According to the current estimates, there are around 5,000 FPOs functional in the country. 910 of them affiliated to Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) while around 3,000 are associated with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). The remaining FPOs in India have been created and run by private companies.