FPOs: IN THE ROYAL WORLD

75 years ago, at the midnight of August 14, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru made an iconic and decisive declaration “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom”

As India is celebrating the 75th year of Independence, As the stock markets and Money Markets and Living costs shoot up, the James Webb Telescope clicks the Milky way, Cartwheel, and so on to prove life, as the universe amazingly darts through the 21st century.

A few fancy words are coined, like ‘Small Holder Farmers, Sustainable Living Income, Agri-tech, FOAB, Rural Enterprise, Farmer Interest Groups, Farmer Producer Companies, SDGs” and the list goes on.

Countries rising against countries, People against People, Politics against Politics, Power-hungry, greed for Wealth and upper hand over the domains is the order of the day across the world. Despite all these spectacles, the Development Sector is sensitive toward the environment and humanity demonstrating Humanitarian values. One of the experiments is working toward Small Holder Farmers.

Few institutions are marching towards the goal of 10,000 FPOs (Farmer Producer Companies) to support smallholder holder farmers to end hunger, and poverty and create sustainable living income.

There is a sudden demand for farmers to become Directors of these FPOs. Another observation is that land-holding women are the key players for Women FPOs. As the smallholder farmer has little to no knowledge about the legalities and the compliance issues under the regulations, they might end up in trouble in the future.

The MCA data shows more than 20,000 FPOs are registered in India, yet there is no proper focus on sustainability or the impact on the lives of these smallholder farmers who are part of these FPOs. Another study says that 80% of FPO's existence cannot be traced except for registration certificates or defaulted FPOs.

Working with almost 600 plus FPOs/MACS/NGO and directly with millions of Women and Farmers.

As this confusion continues, quick research throws light on the stats that the central government of India's Schemes and Grants for FPOs are almost INR 5Mn in grants and INR 20Mn in loans without collateral. The list goes on, grants from international NGOs, CSR funds for supporting the FPOs and state-level infrastructure schemes, and free lands at the Mandal level for interventions.

The topic of FPO is as hot as “Teja Mirchi or Chili”. The new power play starts around the FPO to hold positions of Honor, Respect, Publicity, and Personal mileage. Despite all these, there is a new model which can help the Farmer Producer Companies/ Self Help Groups / Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies and the Farmer Interest Groups to be successful in what they are good at.

Below is a practical success story from a project which I handle.......

Farmer Producer Companies (FPO) need strong Social Capital, Strong Governance, and Accountability at all levels. We believe that Project Management Committees PMC at the FPO level and Project Implementation Monitoring Committees at Mandal Level PIMC play a vital role in building the FPO successful.

PMC & PIMC are an informal forum, formed by the representatives of FPOs, FIGs and Local government bureaucrats, Government Resource Institutions, and Local leaders. They serve as advisory committees for community-level development through FPO. The Scope of the advisory committee meeting should be in Sharing project plans and progress, challenges, ideas, discussions, and solutions to mitigate at the local level.

The key is strong governance…....

·?????Regular Board meetings, PMC & PIMCs, and discussions

·?????Sharing project progress through reports, and plans for the next quarter followed by community visits.

·?????Identify and leverage local resources and use

·?????Annual General Meetings, exposure visits, and keeping active in marketing systems

·?????Transparency, Accountability, and Responsibility at every level

This will help the FPOs to unlock the local-level opportunities. Help to use the local resources for the Growth of FPO as the starting point is from the grassroots.

The community-level thought process will value and encourage contribution and engage farmers to the FPO to think for themselves and figure out the right thing for their own good and try it out.

Building responsibility for the communities like PMC, PIMC, and the External stakeholders.

Though these committees are honorable positions, the stakeholders are also responsible to deliver the needful commitments or the knowledge or contacts discussed in the meetings. In recent such meetings with Rolla Kamadhenu Farmer producer company limited and The Narpal Rythu Nestham Farmer Produce Company Ltd.

Shared leadership of the community can be a strong boost for the FPO.

As the world speaks and speculates about World Food Crisis, countries like Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and Afghanistan are already battling for food. I would like to conclude with a quote from a Telugu Proverb…….

“???? ??????? ???? ???? Koti vidyalu kuuti kosamey”

(The aim of acquiring Millions of skills/education/knowledge is to earn Food)

Whatever skill we possess is directly connected to earning food. It is important for every individual to work towards food security. As INGOs, Corporates, and Governments (Public Private Partnership) stand with the farmer and Farmer Producer Companies, it utmost importance that these small institutions need to be strong in governance, Self-Sustainability and be powerful and more meaning full in the development sector.