The central committee formed to study issues affecting farmers producers organisations holding discussions with FPO representatives at the National Research Centre for Banana in Tiruchi on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A seven-member committee constituted by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan to examine the issues affecting Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and recommend suitable remedial measures held a brainstorming session with FPO representatives at the ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana in Tiruchi on Tuesday.About 135 representatives of FPOs from across Tamil Nadu attended the session organised by NRCB on the topic “Farmer producers organisations in Tamil Nadu: Performance, sustainability, challenges and future prospects.”The programme was chaired by Chinmay P. Gotmare, Joint Secretary (Marketing), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and co-chaired by R. Selvarajan, Director, NRCB, according to a NRCB press release.In his inaugural address, Dr. Selvarajan said nearly 45,000 FPOs were functioning across the country. However, only 4,009 FPOs remained profitable after five years, he said citing a National Academy of Agricultural Sciences report. The major reasons for their poor sustainability were inadequate training and capacity-building, lack of capital and poor marketing network support, he said.S. S. Vaseegaran, General Manager, NABARD, said NABARD supported 35 FPO federations in Tamil Nadu. Financial support was now provided through NAPKISAN, the financing arm of NABARD. Nearly 400 NABARD-promoted FPOs have been established in Tamil Nadu and around 250 are functioning successfully, he said.S. Manamalli, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board/State SFAC (TN-SFAC), said around 10 lakh farmers in Tamil Nadu were members of FPOs.G. Ranganathan, one of the committee members, said nearly ₹44,000 crore is shared among intermediaries in the trade of 27 major agricultural commodities in Tamil Nadu and FPOs can get a significant share of this if they functioned more effectively.Representatives of FPOs, including A. P. Karuppaiah and Sampath, explained the challenges faced by FPOs and presented their suggestions for their growth.They requested the government to release pending equity grants and provide financial support for the remuneration of Chief Executive Officers to strengthen FPOs. They urged the government to exempt FPOs from the mandatory Registrar of Companies (ROC) audit requirements and abolish the 10% penalty imposed for non-compliance with audit provisions and wanted the NAFED to procure agricultural produce directly from FPOs to ensure better market access and remunerative prices for farmers.The FPO representatives suggested the establishment of necessary infrastructure for FPOs and retail outlets at regulated markets or other suitable government sites. They sought government support for establishing seed processing units, electricity tariff subsidies, and a separate governance mechanism for FPOs instead of placing them under the Marketing Department, thereby enabling more focused policy support and effective implementation of FPO-related programmes, the press release added. Published - August 04, 2026 07:20 pm IST
