- FPO is an association of farmer members voluntarily controlled by themselves and open to everybody without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.
- It does not restrict education and training to its members and elected representatives but also extends to the managers and employees of FPOs.
Benefits of FPOs:
- Average land holding size: FPOs may involve farmers in collective farming and solve the problem of small farm sizes.
- Bargaining with Corporates: FPOs may help the farmers bargain with large corporate houses.
- Efficient Aggregation: Dre FPOs may offer member farmers low-cost and quality inputs and save member farmers’ time, transaction costs, and all other costs associated.
- Social Impact: FPOs can build social capital, improve gender relations and decision making, reduce social conflicts, and enhance food and nutritional values.
- Way Forward: Not only do we need new FPOs in India, but also the structural issues have to be addressed in terms of technical skills, professional management, finances, access to credit, risk mitigation mechanisms, and markets and infrastructure.
- Group Farming: FPOs can extend their land holdings by bringing together adjacent plots of land, creating a supply chain, and creating new markets.
