What are the roles and functions of the Farmers Producers Organisations?

Farmer Producers Organizations are actually a type of farmer-owned institutions with legal backing. They are comprised of the farmers, weavers, milk-men, craftsmen, artisans, etc in the rural sectors who have shared interests and concerns. Thus, rural producers come together on a common platform for pushing common interests and harness the economic benefits.

• These are registered under the Company�s Act.
• Farmers form groups of 15-20 in their villages and ultimately all these groups come together to form Farmer Producer Organisations. Latter can have as many as 1000 members.
• FPOs ensure that maximum benefits of economies of scale and all the village producers are able to get competitive prices for their input materials.
• The number of FPOs in India is slightly more than 5000 out of which 3200 are registered as the Private Companies while the remaining ones exist as Cooperatives/Societies.

These companies will thus be strengthened by governmental policy push and other kinds of structural reforms in addition to technological and financial support via customized services. Various governmental schemes which have been introduced by the government for support of FPOs are:

• Equity Grant Fund Scheme
• Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme
• Scheme for Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages
• National Rural Livelihoods Mission