In the background of deep crisis in agriculture, building farmers institutions which can improve the last mile delivery of support services and first mile aggregation of farm produce is a critical step. The learnings from Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh and rest of the country shows that mandal/block/cluster level farmers institutions taking charge of planning and improving their livelihoods, making staff accountable to the community institutions are important. Growing economic crisis also have shown that farmers share in the consumer price even for primary produce is less than 30%. In this context the organised community taking up activities to move up the value chain which increase the price realisation, additional employment opportunities is a must need.
Towards this Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) has started building farmers cooperatives registered under Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Act, 1995, since 2008. Initially the farmers and farmers cooperatives started selling their produce directly through an organic store established by Sahaja Aharam Consumer Cooperative in 2009 in Tarnaka, Secunderabad. As majority of these cooperatives were into organic production, a federation of organic producers was established in 2014 as Sahaja Aharam Producer Company (SAPCO). The consumer cooperative and the stores got merged into this federation. Currently the Sahaja Aharam Retail is operating three food processing hubs in Bhoddam, Vijayanagaram, Naguladinner, Kurnool districts of AP and Kallem, Jangoan dist of Telangana and four organic retail stores in Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam,
For building, strengthening and supporting the farmer collectives CSA has initiated a platform FPOhub which nurture FPOs in the initial stages and provide an end to end support services to sustain their functionality through maturity. Currently we are supporting more than 200 Farmer Producer Organizations in AP, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
- Collective platform to support FPOs
- Nurturing, mentoring and supporting FPOs
- Converging Services and programs-Organisations, start ups etc
- Building integrated Digital Platforms
- Building Rural Leadership
I. Cluster Based Business Organizations (38): The Government of India has taken up a grand initiative to form 10,000 FPOs in the next five years. Under this scheme CSA has been identified as a Cluster Based Business Organisation for formation and nurturing of Farmer Producer Organisations in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka
Andhra Pradesh (16): Four FPOs in YSR Kadapa District supported by National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). These FPOs are in Pulivendula, Proddutur, Vempalli and Vemula Mandals and one in Ontimitta supported by NABARD. In Krishna District in Nuzivid and Agirepalli Mandals two FPOs specialised in Mango are supported by NABARD, three FPOs specialised on organic farming are supported by NABARD and NCDC, One another in Vishakapatnam supported by NABARD. and Five FPOs are supported by SFAC
Telangana (21): Five FPOs are supported by Small Farmer Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) in the districts of Jaishankar Bhupally -two FPOs in Bhopalapally and Mahadevpur mandals specialised in Chillies, one in Narayanpet mandal, Sangareddy district, one in Boinpally mandal, Rajanna Siricilla, One in Alwal mandal, Medchal-Malkajgiri District. With NCDC support Two FPOs in Siddipet district in Dubbak and Kondapak mandals, One in Gadwal mandal of Mahaboobnagar district. With NABARD support two FPOs in Nalgonda district in Nakirekal and Narkatpalli mandals. during 2021-22 Four FPOs have been allocated by NABARD, Five by SFAC and two by NCDC.
Karnataka (5): Four FPOs in Gulbarga district and one in Yadgir district supported by SFAC.
II. Promoting Agency (19): under Producer Organisations Development Fund (PODF) and earlier under PRODUCE fund NABARD has been promoting FPOs and CSA has been actively been involved in promoting FPOs. The limited numbers of FPOs formed and nurtured gives hands on learning and experience in managing FPOs for the team. Currently we are promoting FPOs in AP and Telangana. Similarly, in Maharashtra CSA is working with Punjab Rao Organic Farming Mission to establish FPOs.
Andhra Pradesh (10)
District | Mandal | FPO Name |
Vizianagaram | Vepada | Vepada Tribal FPCL |
Haritha MACS | ||
Brahmalingeshwara MACS | ||
Kurnool | C. Belegal | Thungabhadra MACS |
Kadapa | Proddutur | Proddatur FPCL |
Vemula | Vemula FPCL | |
Vempalli | Vempalli FPCL | |
Vempalli | Gayatri MACS | |
Anantapur | Talupula | Talupula FPCL |
Sevalal Organic Farmers MACS |
Telangana (9)
District | Mandal | FPO Name |
Vikarabad | Devarampally | Devarampally FPCL |
Thummalapally | Thummalapally FPCL | |
Jangoan | Lingala Ghanpur | Adharsha Enebavi FPCL |
Mancheriyal | Bellampally | Bellampally FPCL |
Yadadri Bhongir | Gundala | Nelatally FPCL |
Adilabad | Thalamadugu | Thalamadugu FPCL |
Kamareddy | Etigadda | Etigadda FPCL |
Siddipet | Mulugu | Suraksha FPCL |
Jagdevpur | Safe Food FPCL | |
Cheriyal | Cheriyal FPCL |
III. Resource Support Agency (RSA) : CSA is acting as Resource Support Agency for Farmer Producer Organisations for NABARD in AP and Telangana States, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty in AP and Telangana and in Maharashtra with Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Missions. Here CSA role is in building the capacities of the FPOs staff and board members, handholding in developing business plans, building forward and backward linkages and compliances with legal systems.
NABARD Andhra Pradesh (62): CSA acts as a Resource Support Agency to support the Producer Organisations Promoting Institutions (POPIs) in the districts of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasham and Nellore districts.
NABARD Telangana (94): CSA is acting as Resource Support Agency to POPIs in the erstwile Mahaboobnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts of Telangana. Earlier during 2017-18 CSA also supported formation of 220 FPOs under PODF across the state of Telangana.
SERP Telangana (2): CSA is supported Anantagiri Farmer Producer Organisation in Vikarabad district and designed, established and providing handholding support to be’Nishan Farmer Producer Organisation, a federation of FPOs promoted by SERP, Telangana.
MSRLM, Maharashtra (2): supporting MSRLM to establish and handhold 2 FPOs in Wardha and Yavatmal districts of Maharashtra.
AIC Sangam Ventures: As part of the Incubation Centre for North Eastern States, we support 13 startups and FPOs
NERLP, Sikkim and Tripura: As a resource organisation CSA worked with NERLP to build two FPOs in Sikkim and two in Tripura during 2016-19.