SOCIO ECONOMIC IMPACT OF FARMER PRODUCER ORGANISATIONS (FPOs) IN BASTAR DISTRICT OF CHHATTISGARH
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Date
2018
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Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur
Abstract
Though India has become self-sufficient in food production, Indian farmers are still poor. They face multi-fold problems of lack of technical knowledge, information, marketing skills and the resources to meet the requirement of formal markets. As a result they fail to efficiently market their produce. One of the potential alternatives for efficient marketing is mobilising farmers for group action for arranging inputs and marketing their produce in a collective way through FPOs. The main philosophy of FPOs is to collectivise farmers and generate income, savings and increase productivity. The study was conducted in Bastar District of Chhattisgarh including four Farmer Producer Organisations. All of these four Farmer Producer Organisations were co-operative associated. From each FPOs 20 farmers were selected so in total 80 farmers were selected for the study. The specific objective for the present study were: (i) To study the philosophy, background and organisational structure of the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), (ii) To identify the factors contributing to success and sustainability of the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), (iii) To assess the socio-economic impacts of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and (iv) To ascertain the constraints of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and to suggest measures for its up scaling and replication. The study includes interview schedule, focused group discussion, observation and secondary sources. Average number of members present in an organisations was 180 members. Average shares per member was around Rs.185. Average number of employees present in an organisations were eight. Literacy rate of selected 80 member farmers from an organisation was 85 percent, Average size of land holdings was one hectare, Average annual income of selected member farmer was Rs.one lakh. The average turnover of farmer producer organisation was around Rs.10 lakh and the average profit comes around Rs 1.8 lakh. The most important factors contributing to success and sustainability of FPOs were regular auditing, access to credit facilities, providing extension support to their members like training, demonstration etc., helping the farmers in marketing variables like grading and packaging of the produce. All of the four organisations portrayed high degree of social equity in its activities and operations. The study justified that all the four organisations are sustainable and are still in the growing phase. The membership in organisation was found to have direct impact on the socio-economic conditions of the people in all the four Farmer Producer Organisations. It was found that there was 28 per cent increase in farmers income, 50 per cent increase in their savings, 75 per cent increase in price of vegetables and 28 per cent increase in price of milk from previous year to current year. A significant difference was noticed for member farmers from their previous year to current year in terms of food security, habitat security, educational security, health security and social empowerment. There was 150 per cent increase in quality of food available, 50 per cent increase in water supply to houses, 71 per cent children got collegiate education and 18 per cent FPOs help in solving problems of farmers.
The major constraints at farm level were technical constraints like lack of proper infrastructure and computer illiteracy, labour and economic constraints like unavailability of labour during harvesting and lack of technical skills of labour, marketing constraints like distant market and high cost of transportation and perishable nature of products. To overcome these constraints certain suggestions were provided such as: Proper development of infrastructure of FPOs, proper guidelines to FPOs for computer literacy, Proper guidelines should be given to raise the technical skills of labours, Cold storage facilities should be provided to each and every FPOs dealing with perishable commodities and many mor
Description
SOCIO ECONOMIC IMPACT OF FARMER PRODUCER ORGANISATIONS (FPOs) IN BASTAR DISTRICT OF CHHATTISGARH
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