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ICRISAT facilitates agribusiness opportunities for FPO from six states
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
October 31 , 2014
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Farmer producer organisations (FPO) from six states of India (Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Rajasthan) are benefiting from the agribusiness opportunities created by
the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT), which would enable them to operate as businesses and make
their farm operations sustainable and profitable.
At a day-long
Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) Summit, organised recently by
ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) programme, over 100 smallholder
producers from the aforemenntioned states convened to explore
agribusiness opportunities in such areas as technology penetration,
improving productivity and access to inputs and services, and increasing
incomes for a sustainable agriculture-based livelihood.
At the
summit, ABI-ICRISAT provided the participants with extensive knowledge
and information, as well as networking support in setting up and
promoting FPO. The participants comprised aspiring entrepreneurs,
progressive farmers, members of self-help groups (SHG), and
representatives from farmers’ welfare and rural livelihood development
organisations.
“The FPO approach is an intervention owned,
managed and executed by smallholder farmers themselves. We need to scale
up and increase the number of FPO through agribusiness incubators, so
that we can bring in more stakeholders to make agriculture more
sustainable and profitable,” said Dr William Dar, director general,
ICRISAT.
“Our mission is not just to make smallholder farmers in
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa self-sufficient, but prosperous too, through
our inclusive market-oriented development strategy. That is why we are
engaged in promoting an inclusive and technology-based entrepreneurship
and agribusiness programme,” he added.
“In India, 35 per cent of
the farmers do not have access to organised credit. With significant
movement of rural labour from farming to non-farm activities, labour
scarcity has emerged as one of the biggest constraints to agricultural
production in the country. The mechanisation of agriculture is the only
solution to improve farming,” said C V R Rajendran, chairman and
managing director, Andhra Bank.
Ramakrishnaiah Duvvuri, team
leader, Management Support Group-Farmer Producer Organisations
(MSG-FPO), Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), said, “FPO are
essential for the empowerment, poverty alleviation and advancement of
farmers and the rural poor. The Ministry of Agriculture has declared the
year 2014 as the Year of the FPO.”
“Through better marketing of
agricultural products and bargaining for lower interest rates from the
banks, smallholder farmers would be able to expand their employment
opportunities and increase their rural incomes,” he added.
“We
have made progress in promoting and organising farmers to become FPO,
but much work is still needed to make these organisations scalable and
sustainable. Today’s summit aims to provide the participants with
information on how to access markets and secure finance, and to identify
the role of agribusiness incubators in taking the FPO initiative
forward,” said S M Karuppanchetty, chief operating officer, ABI-ICRISAT.
At
the summit, participants gained a better understanding of the gaps and
opportunities for FPO in agribusiness, initiatives by the government
through various schemes, capital and funding schemes and networking
opportunities for FPO developers and funding agencies.
Poomurugesan,
executive director, Kazhi Kadmadai Farmers’ Federation, said, “An
ABI-ICRISAT-supported FPO in Tamil Nadu, presented his success story to
the participants and shared his journey and experience in leading the
federation into becoming a successful FPO.”
The ABI-ICRISAT
capacity-building programme on agribusiness is underway. The five-day
programme, which would conclude on November 1, 2014, would focus on FPO
management and seed business and agro-processing business management,
and is aimed at enhancing the success rate and performance of FPO.
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