Indian agriculture and agribusiness sustain nearly 58% of India’s population and lead in producing various crops and livestock. However, challenges such as limited global market access, stagnant farm incomes, small land holdings, irrigation issues, disease risks, and limited mechanisation impede growth. To tackle these challenges, the government has initiated interventions to enhance sustainability and growth in the sector.

These interventions include promoting farmer collectives and farmer produce organisations (FPCs), implementing regulatory reforms, and enhancing logistics infrastructure and quality standards. FPOs play a crucial role in empowering producers, enabling their transition into various value-adding activities. FPCs, a form of FPO, address common concerns related to cooperatives and provide a range of services to farmer members, such as good agricultural practices (GAP) and crop advisory, input-shop services, credit linkage, direct market access, and shared facilities for storage and processing.

These valuable insights have been incorporated by Grant Thornton Bharat, in partnership with the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), in the latest publication 'The Entrepreneurial Farmer: A Manual for Empowering Farmer Producer Organisations,' authored by Neelkamal Darbari, IAS (Former MD, SFAC), V. Padmanand (Partner and Social Sector Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP), Kunal Sood (Partner and National Transformation Consulting Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP), and Dr. Rakesh Arrawatia (Professor, IRMA).

Some notable insights include:

  • Aggregation in agriculture is key for economies of scale and shared services-: FPOs and FPCs facilitate value-adding activities and access to services such as input supply, credit, custom hiring, seed production, processing, and marketing.
  • FPCs address FPO concerns-: Conduct cluster studies mapping agricultural scenarios for crop-related intervention strategies, involving pre-field, field, and post-field studies, including data collection, farmer consultation, and baseline surveys.
  • Intrapreneurial managers of FPCs require strong soft skills-: These skills include commitment to quality, efficiency, systematic planning, problem-solving, self-confidence, persistence, initiative, information-seeking, persuasion, and the ability to influence.
  • Developing a business plan for FPCs-: Such a plan should be especially for primary processing or value-adding infrastructure, requiring thorough area assessment involving consultation with various stakeholders, including existing facilities, forward and backward-linked stakeholders, and private and public service providers.

In conclusion, this publication is a comprehensive guide for ensuring statutory and legal compliance for FPCs, covering incorporation, post-registration activities, record maintenance, and compliance calendars. It also explores schemes available to FPCs, including credit guarantees and equity grants for FPOs, as well as schemes from the Ministry of MSME and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. The manual aims to significantly contribute to upscaling interventions in forming and promoting FPOs in India.

Shri Jayant Sinha

Dr. Umakant Dash

Smt. Neelkamal Darbari

Prof. Ramesh Chand

About the event

The Livelihood Summit, organised by Grant Thornton Bharat in association with the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in Delhi on 9 February 2024, convened senior IAS officers, CEOs, heads of foundations and CSR initiatives, and developmental bankers from across India. The summit focused on sharing best practices to advance the objectives of doubling farmers’ income and empowering women in self-help groups (SHGs), with the aim of benefiting 14 crore farmers and 9 crore women in SHGs across India.

The sessions included:

  • Best practices in promoting income-generating networks of the poor.
  • Enabling policy environment for promotion of producer organisations.
  • Sustainable revenue-generating activities by producer organisations.
  • From self-help groups to producer organisations.
  • Convergence and partnership for the promotion of income-generating producer organisations.

Shri Vibhu Goel

Shri Vinod Sheshan

Shri DPS Kharbanda

How women-led FPOs are transforming India’s agriculture

Discover how women-led FPOs are reshaping Indian agriculture. Learn about the success, challenges, and proposed policy changes with Grant Thornton Bharat insights.