Farmers ushering in anera of entrepreneurship

Anantapur: About 23 farmers producers organisations (FPOs) have been registered in Anantapur district by the Department of Horticulture as part of the State government's grandiose plan to register 1,000 FPOs involving 10 lakh farmers in the State.

The State and Central governments are promoting FPOs in a big way with an objective of converting the initiative into a farmers’ cooperative movement, which is expected to have its bearing on the economy of individual farmers’ families as a unit.

The Department of Agriculture too has registered several farmers’ producers companies. Both Horticulture and Agriculture departments put together registered around 100 FPOs in Anantapur alone. In the near future, it is expected that these FPOs will tie-up with multinational companies including Reliance, Walmart among others.

The FPOs are registered as a multi-commodity marketing companies which will help the farmers to emerge as a cooperative business entity, organising everything for farmers from procurement of seeds, fertilisers, credit from banks to marketing of their produce.

The farmers are responding positively to the government initiative as the very concept is giving them bargaining power and helping them to collectively face challenges.For the tomato farmer Sanjeeva Reddy in Kalyandurgam, the days of isolation and facing challenges individually are a thing of past.

The FPO of which Reddy is part of is helping him to successfully market his tomato crop at fairly profitable price, even when the tomato market is slack and at its low. There is strength in community approach in business and farming propositions. Banana, chilli, tomato, mango, papaya, sweet orange, lemon, cashew and other horticulture crops have been identified as growth engines. Already 36 FPOs has been registered, and another 24 are under the process of registration.

Anantapur district Horticulture department deputy director D Subbarayudu talking to The Hans India stated that as a result of FPOs farmers were experiencing an increase in income by 35 per cent, reduction in production cost by 20 per cent, losses in procurement, production, and marketing were minimised by 10 per cent, productivity enhancement by 20 percent apart from building a social capital of 1.25 lakh farmers moblised in form of FPOs.

The benefits to farmers include price realisation by farmer and producer, middlemen role is minimised, farmers get a higher share of prices, branding and presence in the markets and employment generation.

About 16 corporate companies had reached an agreement with the FPOs in the district on the dairy front, groundnut fodder pellets, dairy fodder, millets, maize, banana, pomegranate, capsicum and European cucumber and chillis.

The farmers are encouraged either to form themselves into mutually-aided cooperative societies or FPOs through key interventions, including technology infusion, value addition, marketing linkage and project management.

Even FPOs are formed from 130 organic and natural farming clusters. All farmer members of FPOs pay a share capital of Rs10 each and any number of shares can be purchased by the 500 odd members of each FPO.

Rukmini, a woman member of FPO said that she had been fighting a lone battle until she joined the FPO as a sweet orange farmer from Marthadu village in Garladinne mandal.

She said that she now felt that an army of farmers were with her in securing remunerative price for her produce. In the past, farmers belonging to a single village worked at cross purposes and indulged in self- defeating exercises but more than 500 farmers are coming together as a unit to command the market forces, she added.