Farmer Producer Organisations from across the Country Met Agriculture Minister and Narrated the Benefits of the Farm Acts

The Farm Acts are steps taken by the Government towards doubling farmers income by 2022 -- Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar met members of Farmer Producer Organisations of Federation of Indian FPOs and Aggregators (FIFA) representing 15 states and around 500 FPOs at Krishi Bhawan on 17 December 2020. They expressed their support for the recent Agricultural Reforms by the Government of India. They thanked the minister for the enabling environment which these Acts have created to scale business of FPOs to benefit the small and marginal farmers. They narrated their experiences in which they described how small farmers have benefitted from the recent reforms and Farm Acts.

The recent Agricultural Reforms, which can support FPOs to setup their own markets to enhance the incomes of farmers are --: the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; Liberalization of control orders under the Essential Commodities Act; Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) and operational guidelines for promotion of 10,000 FPOs.

These reforms in Agriculture sector will lead to increased volume of production of horticulture crops and value-added commodities; Institutional credit to strengthen small farmers and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs); will boost the agri-logistic infrastructure in a major way; will develop backward and forward linkages to meet demand of all consumption zones of India; will lead to One Nation One Market and will make the FPO movement a mass movement.

NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.) has been designated as one of the National Implementing Agencies for formation and promotion of 10000 FPOs Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. NAFED has acquired FIFA to provide market linkage support to the FPOs for their produce and create markets in partnership with the FPOs under the brand of NAFED e-Kisan Mandi (NeKM) which will be connected to the National Digital Marketing platform being created by NAFED.

50 NeKMs will be created in 2021 in the following states:

· Haryana 3

· Punjab 2

· Rajasthan 3

· Madhya Pradesh 3

· Gujarat 5

· Maharashtra 8

· Karnataka 3

· Tamil Nadu 4

· Andhra Pradesh 3

· Telangana 1

· Jharkhand 2

· Bihar 2

· Chattisgarh 1

· Odisha 2

· Uttar Pradesh 4

· J&K 1

· NorthEast 3