On 26th November 2020, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare virtually inaugurated the Honey Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) Programs of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) under the “Formation & Promotion of 10,000 FPOs” Scheme in 5 states (West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan).
Purpose:
i.The government is promoting the FPOs, with a view of their role in implementing agricultural reforms in India.
The Honey FPO Programme:
i.The areas covered under the Honey FPO programme are, Sundarbans in West Bengal, East Champaran in Bihar, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Morena in Madhya Pradesh and Bharatpur in Rajasthan.
ii.At Morena in Madhya Pradesh, the FPO will cover 5 blocks (around 68 villages) and the other 4 FPOs will cover around 340 villages in the respective states.
Imlementation:
i.The NAFED,one of the Implementing Agencies(IAs) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, will support the establishment of the Honey FPO programme in the five states.
ii.NAFED has initiated the formation and promotion of FPOs of beekeepers and honey collectors in the 5 states through its empanelled Cluster-Based Business Organisation (CBBO) Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionas(ISAP).
Benefits:
i.These 5 FPOs will benefit more than 4000 to 5000 beekeepers and honey collectors.
ii.NAFED will support them in branding and collective marketing of the honey and will also help them to explore the overseas markets.
iii.The FPOs set up by Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) under the National Bee Board (NBB) and NAFED will help its members to upgrade their skills in scientific bee keeping and also make its members to set up facilities for processing honey and allied products (bee’s wax, propolis, royal jelly, bee venom), quality control laboratories, collection, storage, bottling and marketing centres.
iv.The Mini Mission 1 & 2 of the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) of the National Bee Board will benefit the FPOs.
Key Points:
i.These FPOs are one of the first sets of 2200 FPOs that were approved by the National Level Project Management Advisory and Fund Sanctioning Committee (N-PMAFSC) for the current financial year.
ii.The establishment of these FPOs are entrusted to NABARD (600FPOs), Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (500), National Cooperative Development Corporation (500) and NAFED will support 50 commodities specific FPOs.
Beekeeping in India:
i.The adoption of beekeeping is less in India despite the huge potential of the beekeeping industry, due to various constraints like technical, institutional, trade, seasonality, quality, operational, quality.
ii.NAFED will address these issues by acting as an intermediary and reduce the gap between the supply chain and
Note:
The First Honey FPO under National Beekeeping & Honey Mission at Chambal FED Shahad Utpadak Sahakari Samiti, Madhya Pradesh was registered on 11.11.2020 under the Cooperatives Act.
About NAFED:
i.NAFED has been appointed as the 4th National Implementing Agency other than SFAC, NABARD and NCDC for the creation of 10,000 FPOs by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW).
ii.NAFED has recently taken over the national level Federation of Indian FPOs and Aggregators (FIFA) with the aim of creating sustainable small holder institutions to enhance collective capacities, shortening of agri produce value chains for equitable returns to all stakeholders and leveraging technology for enhanced transparency, scale and seamless agri. produce trading.
Recent Related News:
i.On August 11, 2020, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar virtually launched the Krishi Megh (National Agricultural Research & Education System -Cloud Infrastructure and Services) along with the KVC ALUNET (Krishi Vishwavidyalaya Chhatr Alumni Network) and Online Accreditation System for Higher Agricultural Educational Institutions (HEI) on the lines of the Digital India initiative.
About National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED):
Chairman– Dr. Bijender Singh
Managing Director– Sanjeev Kumar Chadha
Headquarters– New Delhi
