19-02-2021 | 14:31 PM
Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)
Context
Recently, the Government of India has launched a new Central Sector scheme titled "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)" with budgetary provision of Rs. 6865 crores.
Key Highlights
The scheme has been launched with a clear strategy and committed resources in order to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs across India.
This is a Central Sector Scheme which receives funding from the Government of India.
FPOs are to be developed to produce clusters, wherein agricultural and horticultural products are grown for leveraging economies of scale and improving market access for members.
Under this scheme, the formation & Promotion of FPOs will be done with the help of Implementing Agencies (IAs) such as:
Implementing agencies will engage Cluster- Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) to aggregate, register and provide professional handholding support to each FPO for a period of five years.
FPOs will be provided financial assistance up to Rs 18 lakhs per FPO for a period of 3 years.
Provision has been made for matching equity grant up to two thousand rupees per farmer member of FPO with a limit of 15 lakh rupees per FPO and a credit guarantee facility upto Rs two crore of project loan per FPO from eligible lending institutions to ensure institutional credit accessibility to FPOs.
