The harvest of collaboration

Vijay C Roy

Perturbed about his dwindling farm income, Kamalvir Singh, a marginal farmer from the nondescript village of Sirkapra in Patiala district, registered Nojvan Farmer Producer Company Limited in 2017. The idea was to assist small and marginal farmers and raise their income by involving them in an allied activity of apiculture. The initiative, which started with a few farmers, has now 580 members and a turnover that touched Rs 4.5 crore in the last fiscal.

“Thanks to apiculture, members of the FPO are making their income grow without any additional burden on agriculture. More farmers are now engaging in this activity and the membership is witnessing steady growth,” says Kamalvir.

The FPO has also obtained FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) certification for packaged honey products and an export certificate for bee pollen. It is also the first FPO working in this sector to export bee pollen. It has exported consignments worth Rs 1.75 crore.

Many farmers in Punjab are reaping a rich harvest by joining FPOs. Gurdaspur-based FPO Young Innovative Farmers’ Producers Organisation was registered in 2015 with the objective of increasing farmers’ income through collective production and marketing. The FPO has around 230 members and deals with production, collection and marketing of milk and milk products. It has also started a farm machinery bank for members and other farmers.

“We have also opened a sales outlet of animal feed. We supply quality animal feed at reasonable rates to the members. The net profit in the fiscal year 2019-20 was around Rs 7 lakh, which was passed on to the members,” says Avtar Singh Sandhu, president of the FPO.

Another FPO, the Rupnagar Producer Company Ltd (RPCL), was registered in April 2013. The FPO was promoted by NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) and Ambuja Cement Foundation. Beginning with 10 farmers, at present over 310 farmers are shareholders in the company. The FPO clocked a turnover of Rs 3 crore in the last fiscal. It is engaged in diverse sectors: sale of pesticides and fertilisers, farm machinery bank, procurement of foodgrains and an aggregator for biomass.

“The FPO has also acquired an arhtiya licence to procure the produce. By way of sharing of proceeds, the FPO gives additional benefit to farmers through wheat and paddy procurement over and above the MSP,” says Sanchit Sharma, CEO of the FPO.

Small and marginal farmers in the state face stumbling blocks such as rising cost of cultivation, no assured market, lack of access to modern technologies and quality inputs. As a result, they are not able to realise optimal productivity and remunerative price for their produce. Through FPOs, the famers can have access to benefits such as quality agri-inputs and extension services. Besides economy of scale in their operations, this has resulted in increased bargaining power for them.

Promoted by NABARD, there are 103 FPOs working in various sectors, with each FPO having 100-200 farmers as members. The FPOs are engaged in activities such as input supply, seed production, vegetable farming, dairy processing, processed food, honey production and marketing. A few have started custom-hiring centres for farm machinery.

Although many FPOs are still in a nascent stage, they have, on the whole, brought about visible change in collectivising the operations of small and marginal farmers.

“The Centre’s decision to set up 10,000 more FPOs is a step in the right direction as these will be promoted under a uniform policy. However, the key factor will be implementation and monitoring,” said Puneet Singh Thind, president, Northern Farmers’ Mega FPO. The FPO provides handholding to farmers, right from the formation of the FPO to the marketing of products.

“The announcement by the Centre will go a long way in promoting processing and value addition in farm produce which is restricted to the wheat-paddy cycle,” says JPS Bindra, NABARD’s chief general manager, Punjab regional office.