India still continues to be predominantly an agricultural economy with majority of the population being still dependent on agriculture and allied activities. More than 80% of country’s farmers are marginal and small farmers with landholding size of less than 1 ha and 2 ha respectively. As such, farmers are unable to achieve the desired economy of scale in production processes. Aggregation of farmers/farming processes is recommended. Accordingly, formation and promotion of Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) have been initiated. It received required impetus with the recently launched CSS Scheme of Formation and Promotion of 10000 FPOs. As on date, around 16000+ FPOs have been formed across the country.

However, several studies highlighted that mere formation and registration of FPOs is not enough. The BoDs are unaware of governance, management, legal compliances and business development. As such they get defunct within few years and in extreme cases get penalised for various non-compliance.

Krushi Vikas is promoting 100+ FPOs with more than a decade of experience in the FPO ecosystem. Relying on its experience and the need for ensuring sustainability of FPOs, Krushi Vikas started a new initiative- All About FPO whereby it aims to provide comprehensive handholding support to all FPOs across the country.

Through All About FPO, Krushi Vikas envision to provide handholding support to the FPOs across the FPO lifecycle right from farmers mobilization and registration till business sustainability. It provides support to the FPOs in the following ways

• Residential trainings
• Online trainings
• Demonstrations, exposure visits, sharing and learning
• Consultancy on need basis
• Conduct short term courses on FPO Management with affiliation from MANAGE, Hyderabad and YCMOU, Govt. of Maharashtra
• Others

It offers trainings and exposure on the following major themes

1. Farmers mobilization and FIG formation and Concept of FPO
2. Registration and documentation
3. Legal compliances, records and bookeeping
4. Accounting, audit and tax filing
5. Value Chain, SWOT, and Business Planning
6. Processing and value addition
7. Logistics and supply chain management
8. Packaging, branding and promotion
9. Marketing, trading and retail management
10. E-commerce and social media management
11. Governance, administration and management of FPO
12. Convergence of govt schemes
13. Access to credit and credit rating
14. Others

As on date, it has conducted more than 150+ residential trainings along with demonstration and exposure visits, 200+ online trainings, trained 400+ youth on FPO Management. This initiative is scalable and replicable and can benefit millions of producers across the country towards their journey of self-reliance and sustainability