By Purushothaman Ravichandran
President, Danfoss India and
Chairman, CII National Task Force on Post Harvest and Logistics (earlier named CII Task Force on Cold Chain Development)

Interactive Session with Farmer Producer Companies for Doubling Farmers’ Incomes
Aligning with the Government of India’s goal of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, the CII Southern Region’s Agriculture & Food Processing Sub-committee, in partnership with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), organized an interactive session with Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) at Coimbatore on July 14. The session was organized with the aim to identify the critical challenges faced by farmers in the country, especially the state, and suggest appropriate solutions.
The three critical constraints faced by farmers in the country were identified as: access to inputs and technological know-how, access to institutional finance, and market linkages. Some of the solutions that emerged from the discussion to overcome the identified challenges faced by farmers were as follows:
• It was suggested that FPCs could play a lead role in production and marketing of certified seeds, which would help them earn additional income.
• Although much work has been done for establishment of FPCs in the country, it was felt that there was a need for proper handholding and training of farmers, especially the executive members of FPCs. The boards of directors of FPCs need training on good governance, financial and management skills. FPCs also need to be trained on the mandatory requirements they need to comply with to qualify for credit from financial institutions.
• It was felt that there was a need to strongly promote Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) in the country. CHCs offer opportunities for small and marginal farmers to access farm machinery and tools that otherwise may not be affordable for them. Farmers were urged to utilize machinery, tools and equipment available in the CHCs.
• FPCs were advised to move towards producing value added products and primary processing, which would enable them to realize better returns while at the same time reduce post harvest losses.
• FPCs were also encouraged to buy crop insurance to protect crop losses due to natural calamities and to avoid falling into debt.
• It was felt that the stage was set for farmers to be engaged with the commodity futures market. The direct hedging facility in the futures market would help reduce the number
of intermediaries and also help farmers get better price realization for their produce.
• To overcome issues of market access and better price realization, it was suggested that private players procure directly from farmers. FPCs offer the opportunity for producing quality produce at a larger scale (due to the scope for aggregation), which are important prerequisites for procurement by private companies. Contract farming also offers opportunity for captive cultivation of a single commodity as per the predetermined agreement between private players and farmers.

S. J. Chiru, Commissioner, Agri Marketing, Department of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu, informed that the government is working on a new policy to attract investments in the food processing sector. He mentioned that the state government is taking a number of initiatives to improve the income of farmers. Some of the initiatives are: reducing input costs, ensuring a fair price for the produce, reducing wastages, and creating alternate sources of income.

P. Ravichandran, Chairman, Agriculture & Food Processing Sub-committee, CII Southern Region and President, Danfoss India stated that to double farmers’ incomes by 2022, there is a need to deploy robust capacity building programs, adopt efficient marketing strategies, and brand the produce of FPCs. Dr. K. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU urged farmers to move beyond the role of primary producers and become entrepreneurs.

The other dignitaries present in the meeting were P. Veera Shankar, DGM-OFDD and Farm Sector, NABARD; Dinesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmer Welfare, Government of India; and Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Agricultural Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. Representatives from the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, NABKISAN Finance Limited, National Agro Foundation and DHAN Foundation also attended. More than three hundred progressive farmers from the state participated in the interactive meeting.