Central Sector scheme to form 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations for collective farming and improved agricultural income.
Target Beneficiaries: 10,000 FPOs formed successfully. 5,000 FPOs onboarded on ONDC platform. ₹18 lakh support per FPO.
Implementing Agency: Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
60000
Funding Ratio (Centre:State): Central Sector Scheme (100% Central Funding)
GS Paper: GS3
Syllabus Tags
Announced in 2020 with the target to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs by 2027-28.
Specialized organizations hired to handhold FPOs for 5 years.
Metric
8,000 Plus
Source: PIB
Metric
INR 6,865 Crore
Source: Ministry of Agriculture
The FPO scheme is a structural intervention to address the fragmentation of Indian landholdings (86% small/marginal farmers). By transitioning from individual to collective bargaining, it provides economies of scale in procurement and marketing. However, the 'Handholding Period' of 5 years is often insufficient for FPOs to achieve financial self-sufficiency. The reliance on Cluster-Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) creates a dependency model that sometimes prioritizes registration numbers over the functional quality of the FPOs. Its success depends on moving beyond simple aggregation to high-value processing and direct-to-consumer linkages.
Analyze the role of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in mitigating the challenges faced by small and marginal farmers in India.
Use this scheme in answers related to: 1. Doubling Farmers' Income (Dalwai Committee recommendations). 2. Reducing the role of middlemen (Arhtiyas) in the agricultural supply chain. 3. Agri-entrepreneurship and 'Agriculture as a Business'. 4. Strengthening agricultural credit flow through group-lending models.