NAMSAI, 9 Apr: The district level monitoring committee (DLMC) meeting on formation and promotion of 10,000 new farmers-producers organizations (FPO), announced in the union budget, was held at the DC’s conference hall here recently.
To address the challenges faced by the farmers, the government of India has formulated a dedicated central sector scheme for formation and promotion of 10,000 FPOs across the country.
Under the scheme, FPOs can be registered either under Part IX-A of the Companies Act, 1956 (as made application under Section 465(1) of the Companies Act, 2013), or under the Cooperative Societies Act of the states. Handholding is to be done for five years by professionally managed cluster-based business organizations.
Issues of marketing and institutional credit linkages were also addressed. In addition, provision has been made for providing assistance to the existing FPOs, as well as for promoting formation of FPOs by agri-value chain organizations/industries.
NABARD District Development Manager Kamal Roy made a detailed presentation on the salient features of the operational guidelines of the scheme, support and monitoring mechanism, and strategy for FPO formation and promotion.
Namsai DC RK Sharma suggested to the forum that the progressive farmers who are into active farming “should be tended and nurtured on priority for membership of upcoming FPOs for effective implementation of the scheme.”
“The CEO has a huge responsibility of the progress of the FPO; hence, educated youths must be inducted into the programme,” he said, and advised the HoDs to put in extra effort “to propagate the message of the FPO scheme to the farmers of Namsai district.”
The DC invited suggestions from all the officers to identify the sectors and areas where these schemes could prove successful.
