Farmers are the heroes of the country who feed and sustain the life of all in the country said Mr Ravi Shanker, District Development Manager, NABARD Gumla.

A Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) is a legal entity/producer company formed by primary producers (farmers) which provides for sharing of profits/benefits among the members. Today there is a great need for FPO. The main aim of FPO is to ensure better income for the producers through an organization of their own. Small producers do not have the volume individually (both inputs and produce) to get the benefit of economies of scale. Besides, in agricultural marketing, there is a long chain of intermediaries who very often work non-transparently leading to the situation where the producer receives only a small part of the value that the ultimate consumer pays.

Caritas India has been making concerted efforts in promoting the small and marginal farm families to ensure food and nutritional security through strengthening good governance. Caritas India committed to improve the livelihood of small & marginal farm families of 15 remotest villages of Palkot block through Agrarian Prosperity Program (Krishi Samriddhi Karyakram) and formed 5 FPO’s which has registered as FPC in 2018 with the support of NABARD, Jharkhand. In collaboration with NABARD, Caritas India has organized one day Project Implementation Monitoring Committee meeting with the 5 Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO) held on 25^th August 2021 in Palkot Gumla Jharkhand to review the progress of FPO’s emphasized on provision to review the progress of the 5 FPO’s and further discuss on the provision of License for input supply (Seeds and Fertilizers) and Agriculture related Govt. Scheme and subsidy. These 5 FPOs have been promoted by Caritas India supported by NABARD.  During the meeting, NABARD Ms Ravi Shankar further suggested the FPO’s increase the membership, increase the volume of the business products and assured to give the proper marketing linkage to all the FPOs. Further emphasis was given to increase the number of women members in FPC and applying for business development assistance to NABARD.  Mr Vijay Nath Mishra, Block Development Officer emphasized bank linkage for all the 5 FPO’s for further processing of license for input supply

Altogether there are 812 members in the 5 FPCs and have a total of Rs. 3,46,600 equity amount have done business of Rs. 429000.00. The FPCs have taken Lac, Paddy & Fertilizers as a commodity for the business in the last six to seven months. All the 5 FPOs have started the business of agriculture produce and the non-timber forest produces on a small scale.