Conference on Experiences of Farmer Producer Organisations (a context of South India)- Jointly organised by APMAS & NAFPO on 12th July, 2019, Hyderabad

About the Workshop:

A national consultation was held on 12th July, 2019 in Hyderabad jointly by APMAS and NAFPO to identify constraints and key building blocks of an effective support to build a strong ecosystem for FPOs to thrive. The discussion focussed on deliberating institutional/design innovation in FPO promotion (including FPO federations) to develop them to achieve scale and sustainability and become autonomous.

The participants of the consultation included representatives from State Government bodies- Agriculture department, Horticulture department, NABARD, SFAC, FPO representatives, financial institutions, promoting organisations along with experts and practitioners.

Panel Discussions:

1. Inaugural Session:

The panel provided a platform to deliberate on the need for integrated support to farmers; understand the role of Farmer Producer Companies and identify and address the challenges in bridging the knowledge gap. More importantly, it created a platform to deliberate on policy implications and the need for design innovation in FPO promotion to augment farmer income.

Prof. Shambu Prasad, IRMA
Mr. CS Reddy, CEO & MD, APMAS
Shri. Rahul Bojja, IAS, Commissioner of Agriculture, Govt. of Telangana
Shri. Venkatram Reddy, Commissioner of Horticulture, Govt. of Telangana
Mr. A. Praveen Reddy, Chairman, Mulkanoor Co-operative Rural Bank and Marketing Society Ltd.
Mrs. Lakshmi Bai, Director of Agri-Marketing, Govt. of Telangana

2. Addressing challenges related to Governance and Management

The objective of this session was to align all relevant stakeholders towards accelerating the pace of connecting farmers with required support initiatives and integrating them on one platform to fulfil the knowledge gap and address governance and management issues of the FPOs.

Prof. Shambu Prasad, IRMA
Dr. K V Gouri- CEO & MD- BASIX
Dr Radha Rani- NIRD & PR
Mr. Arvind Risbud, ED, Myrada
Mr Girdhar- Vrutti

3. Addressing challenges related to Access to Markets and Finance:

This session encapsulated the positive trends in the FPO ecosystem and deliberated on the methods to improve FPO profiles and ways of facilitating constructive interaction among FPOs, banks and markets.

Mr N V Raman, Director, Samunnati Finance
Mr. Satya Dev, CEO, ABY Farmers LLP
Mr VD Sharma, MD- Clean Foods Group of Companies
Mr Pravesh Sharma- Kamatan Farm Tech Pvt Ltd.
Mr. Bharani Kumar, Asst. General Manager, SBI- Agriculture unit
Mr. Sudhir Gupta, Vice President, NeML/ NCDEX

4. Experience sharing of FPOs: Success stories and Recommendations:

This session was reserved for experience sharing of FPO Governing bodies and management. Ultimately, it helped in synthesizing small and actionable steps needed to advance and nucleate processes of change and ensure collective action.