Ramban : Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Mussarat Islam reviewed progress on the formation and promotion of “Farmer Producer Organization (FPO)” at the 5th District Level Monitoring Committee meeting, here on Friday.
The meeting was attended by Chief Agriculture Officer, Ashwani Sharma; DSHO, Dr. Vikas Gupta; CAHO, Dr. Bharat Bushman; DSMS, Horticulture, Pradeep Gupta; DDM NABARD, Arushi Sharma; Area Marketing Officer, Sunil Bakshi; LDM, and members of FPOs, besides other officers of allied departments.
Detailed discussion was held on the status of FPO functioning in Sangaldan and Batote with the objective to scale-up production, branding, and marketing of Anardana as a major commodity and vegetable and quince as a minor commodity under the centrally sponsored scheme of NABARD sector.
The DC also reviewed progress on the formation of FPO by NABARD in Ramban to enhance the production, branding, and marketing of agricultural products.
The Deputy Commissioner directed the Agriculture and Horticulture Department to sensitize farmers about the advantage of FPO for taking maximum benefits from their crops by selling their produce in an organized way. He directed CAO to provide Sun Dryer to FPOs for improving the quality of their dry agricultural products for maximum benefits.
The DC directed DDM NABARD and other concerned officers to guide FPOs in improving the standard of packaging of their products to compete with other products in National and International markets.
While interacting with the Members of FPOs, the DC said that FPO which is an institutional mechanism to reduce the cost of production, increase per unit production and facilitate better market linkage so as to enhance the income of farmers would be registered under the Companies Act.
The FPO will provide an end-to-end solution to the problems confronted by the farmers. The farmers will be free to manage their affairs from the production level to post-harvest and marketing of their branded products, this will eliminate the clutches of the middle man and will be a big step towards the doubling of farmers’ income, the DC added.
