The NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) and NCDC (National Cooperative Development Corporation) have selected IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd, an arm of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) for setting up 17 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in Gujarat covering its 6 districts to cater various kinds of crops.
- A total of 5,000 farmers will be associated with these FPOs by the end of 2021 and more than 50,000 farmers by 2025.
Establishment of 17 FPOs & Crops Coverage:
i.IFFCO Kisan will establish 5 FPOs in association with NABARD in four districts of Gujarat viz. Anand, Patan, Surendranagar and Valsad.
- These FPOs will focus on banana, castor, cumin and cashew/ mango.
ii.The other 12 FPOs will be set up by IFFCO Kisan in association with NCDC in Junagarh and Sabarkantha districts with both the districts having 6 FPOs each.
- FPOs at Junagarh will cater to mango, groundnut, jowar and cumin.
- FPOs at Sabarkantha will look after groundnut, castor, amla and potato.
IFFCO Kisan support for upcoming FPOs:
i.IFFCO Kisan will facilitate market linkage support to these upcoming FPOs and farmers under its Farmer Forward Linking Program (FFLP) so that farmers get better prices for their produce.
ii.With these FPOs, IFFCO creates a sustainable business model by imparting regular training on agri-tech usage, Package of Practices (PoPs), post harvest management, primary processing, quality parameters, market intelligence and diverse business planning etc.
Points to be noted:
i.IFFCO Kisan, in collaboration with NABARD, has already established Rajeshwar FPO in Vav Taluka, Tharad in Banaskantha district of Gujarat engaging more than 1,000 cumin farmers.
- They helped them in establishing a primary processing unit (cleaning, grading and sorting line) and trained them to trade on NCDEX (National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited) in the future and Spot market.
ii.The Central Government has targeted to form and promote 10,000 FPOs by 2025-26.
Recent Related News:
IFFCO introduced the world’s first Nano Urea Liquid for farmers during its 50th annual general body virtual meeting. The production of Nano Urea Liquid will commence by June 2021.
About IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited:
It is a collaboration of Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) with Bharti Airtel and Star Global Resources Ltd. It operates in four major verticals – smart agriculture solution provider; cattle feed business; agri tech; telecom and call centre services.
Managing Director– Sandeep Malhotra
Headquarter– New Delhi
