Title: STRATEGIES FOR STRENGTHENING FARMER PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS

Authors: K. S. Purnima, S. Poornachandra Reddy and A. Lalitha

Publisher: The President, Society of Extension Education Gujarat

Keywords: asset generation, capacity building, credit linkages, FPOs, market linkages, robust supply chain

Volume: 36

Issue: 1

Year: December 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56572/gjoee.2023.36.1.0019

Abstract: Collectivisation of farmers has been considered as the one of the most efficient ways to overcome the challenges that are being faced by the small and marginal farmers. Farmer Producer Organization is found to be successful in breaking the dependency of farmers on intermediaries and enabling a better access for markets in order to benefit from economies of scale. The present study was aimed to identify the business opportunities for FPOs and major strategies for strengthening in terms of capacity building, resource/asset generation, robust supply chain, market and credit linkages. Total of 100 farmers from 5 selected FPOs and 20 members from BODs comprising of 5 from each FPO has been interviewed using a well-structured interview schedule. Data was collected on a five point continuum of agreement and mean score was used for analysing the data. Ranking has been given to the strategies based on the mean scores. For exploring new business opportunities, both farmer members and BODs have ranked 'Accessing new markets' as the focus area. Among all the categories of strategies for strengthening of FPOs, vertical business expansion was more suggested by the members and BODs.