Farmer Processing Organisation (FPO) ‘Krishak Utpadak Sanghthan Evam Audyanik Viparan Sahkari Samiti’ from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi, Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Constituency has become the country’s first agricultural entity to be registered under the ambit of the Cooperative Societies Act.
Generally, the FPOs are registered under the Companies Act. But, this is the first time that such an entity has been established under the Cooperative Societies Act as the part of the Government’s Central Sector Scheme titled “Formation and Promotion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs. More FPOs are on the way under the scheme.
One of the implementing agencies of the scheme, the National Cooperative Development Cooperation (NCDC), an apex finance entity under the Union Agriculture Ministry, will handhold the Varanasi-based FPO for next five years in helping it setting up the multi-service center facilities for mushroom production and cultivation while the green chilli drying system will be equipped with dryers with vacuum nitrogen drying capacities. It was registered on February 26, 2021, as part of the ‘Formation and Promotion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)’ scheme which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 29, last year.
It aims at bringing small and marginal farmers on a bigger platform as a joint entity to help them become ‘aatmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in the long run.
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the scheme on Monday, Union Agriculture Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar tweeted that FPOs will help to improve the rural economy and create employment opportunities for rural sector in the villages itself and this will prevent migration to cities. Later at an event online, Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare termed the FPOs’ scheme as a game changer in the country’s agriculture ecosystem and said that “FPOs will make farming more viable by aggregating land. “
“Formation of FPOs is not just a scheme but it is a plan to give a new dimension to Indian Agriculture in a new India. We will ensure that each FPO is a role model in itself,” he said at the event which was also attended by Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare besides senior officials from the concerned departments from the Ministry and implementing agencies like NABARD.
Sanjay Agrawal, Union Agriculture Secretary said that in each block there should be an FPO which acts as catalyst for institutional infrastructure while Sundeep Nayak, Managing Director of the NCDC, said that the farmers in the country are keen to set up FPOs as it will help them boost their income and make them self-sustaining.
“This is just the beginning”, he said adding that more than 2200 FPOs produce clusters have been allocated for the formation of FPOs in the current year. “The Government aims at transforming agriculture into a sustainable enterprise through FPOs,” Nayak said.